GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 



GUIDE 



t o 



RHETORICAL DELIVERY ; 



A STUDY 

OF THE PROPERTIES OF THOUGHT 

AS RELATED TO UTTERANCE. 



Wm. B. £HAMBERLAIN, a. m., 

PROFESSOR OF ELOCUTION IN OBERLIN COLLEGE, 
AND OBERLIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 



ll 






1 



n 




(k?l 271888 



OBERLIN, O.: 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 
1888. 



/ 






Copyright, 1888, 
By Wm. B. CHAMBERLAIN. 



PRINTED BY THE MATTISON PRINTING CO., OBERLIN. 



PREFACE. 



This book is the outgrowth of practical class- 
room work, and is an effort to supplement that 
work by furnishing a basis for pursuing elocu- 
tion as a study. The need has long been felt of 
some definite statement of the principles that 
govern the mental processes of communication. 
Heretofore, too generally, the physical has led, 
instead of the mental. Elocution has been treated 
as if the materials of the science were tone and 
action. These are simply its tools. 

To furnish to students some suggestions which 
might become a practical guide to the mental part 
of the work of expression, constitutes the primary 
object of this volume. 

A second object, in consonance with the first, has 
been so to present the subject that the student 
should have a definite thing to do each day ; 
should be able to have a lesson assigned, to pre- 
pare that lesson, and to bring into class the results 
of his work upon it, as definitely as in any other 
study. Our elocutionary work in schools and 
colleges has been, for the most part, a little class- 
room drill, interspersed with a few general 



VI PREFACE. 

hints and seed thoughts regarding expression. 

The object in presenting this part of the work 
as a study, is somewhat broader and deeper than 
the securing of an external delivery for the indi- 
vidual student. It is hoped that the principles 
underlying the art of vocal expression will be 
found to offer true discipline, and to furnish their 
quota of material for a liberal training. If only 
the commercial and personal advantage of an im- 
proved delivery were to result, it might fairly be 
questioned whether this study should have any 
place in a college curriculum. 

It is believed that the treatment of the subject 
herein attempted may secure the twofold object, 
of general discipline and immediate practical 
utility. 

This book does not profess to be a treatise on 
vocal culture. That topic, however, has not been 
entirely neglected. Chapter XII., on Vocal Tech- 
nique, is thought to give as minute and extended 
directions as will be practical to the ordinary non- 
professional student. These exercises need, of 
course, to be abundantly illustrated and thor- 
oughly enforced by constant and protracted drill. 

The subject of vocal technique is introduced 
after expressional analysis for a definite reason. 
It is believed that the physical side of the work 



PREFACE. Vll 

can be studied most profitably after the mental. 
By this it is, of course, not intended to maintain 
that one shall have no knowledge of voice at an 
earlier stage — the more the better — but the 
refinement of vocal action itself can be secured 
only in the case of the trained mind. Thought 
must lead, and must dominate the utterance. The 
body is the servant of the soul. It is assumed 
that, before reaching the point in college or in 
seminary at which this analysis of the properties 
of thought as related to utterance will be most use- 
ful, the student will have had some training in the 
use of voice and in the management of the entire 
body for the purposes of expression. 

This is not a work on orthoepy. The elements 
of the language are supposed to have been mas- 
tered, so far as a student in college needs them ; 
and for the use of teachers there are abundant and 
valuable works on this subject. 

It has not been designed to make this a reader, 
in the ordinary sense. Hence there will not be 
found in this book illustrations of exercises 
designed for practice in the elements of articula- 
tion and the simpler forms of word-calling. 

It is lamentably true that many students enter 
college, and graduate therefrom, who cannot pro- 
nounce words fluently. For such this book does 



Vlll PREFACE. 

not propose any remedy, except that which may 
be indirectly given through stimulating the mind 
in the better grasp and measurement of thought. 

Again, it has not been thought needful to fill 
this little volume with choice extracts from litera- 
ture ; a few are introduced for purposes of immedi- 
ate illustration. Fine collections of extracts from 
the masterpieces are accessible to all ; and any of 
these may be used in connection with this work. 
However, in this day of cheap publications, when 
an entire oration of one of the great masters, a 
complete play of Shakespeare, or a whole essay of 
Carlyle or Macaulay, may be purchased for a few 
cents, it is more advisable that the student should 
provide himself with these complete works to 
accompany a guide in the study of delivery. In 
our judgment, much harm has been done and much 
hard work wasted, in the attempt to teach expres- 
sion through short, detached extracts, — mere 
fragments of a self-consistent whole. The broader 
analysis of the entire article or speech must pre- 
cede any intelligent and valuable study of its 
choicest passages. 

Gesture is not fully treated here. Others have 
developed, and are developing, that department 
of the work. Assuming some technical practice on 
the 'basis of other text-books, or of instruction ac- 



PREFACE. IX 

companied by living example, this book contents 
itself with a few hints on the rhetoric of gesture. 

Some repetitions will be observed in these pages. 
For this there are two reasons : the first is that, 
practically, students need to have certain funda- 
mental things kept constantly before them ; and 
this book is a student's manual. The writer feels 
himselfjthe teacher, who is talking with his pupils, 
and repeating when necessary. 

The second reason is that these pages had to be 
prepared in such broken intervals as could be 
snatched from crowded hours of teaching ; and 
the manuscript could not be prepared and revised 
as a whole. 

In the preparation of such a work many sources 
of help and inspiration must be acknowledged. 
The author desires to make special mention of two 
of his teachers : the late Madame Seiler, whose 
personal instruction in the singing voice has been 
of the greatest assistance in forming the technique 
of speech ; and Prof. S. S. Curry, Ph. D., of Bos- 
ton University, whose class-room expositions of 
the Delsarte teaching are most helpful in apply- 
ing the principles of pantomimic training to 
rhetorical delivery. 

Mention should also be made of the work of 
Prof. G. L. Raymond, entitled " The Orator's 



X PREFACE. 

Manual," and of Prof. A. M. Bacon's " Manual of 
Gesture," which books it has been the author's 
privilege to use in his classes, and which he com- 
mends, for preparation and comparison, to stu- 
dents who shall use this book. 

The chief inspiration has been drawn from those 
for whom, especially, this work has been under- 
taken. 

Such as it is, it is offered in this edition to the 
students in Oberlin College and Theological 
Seminary, in the expectation that our united 
labor upon the principles here thus imperfectly 
sketched, may, by the time this limited and pri- 
vate edition is exhausted, have developed a work 
which shall have somewhat more of symmetry 
and completeness. W. B. C. 

Oberlin, April 3, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE RELATION OF ELOCUTION TO RHETORIC. 

PAGE 

Physical Advantages Conceded — Thought through Tone — 
Place of this Study in the Course — Elocution Regards 
the Thought as in Process of Communication — Ad- 
dressed to the Ear — Modifies Written Thought — Effect 
on Structure — Modifications of Thought by Delivery — 
Speaker's Relation to the Thought — Comments — Proofs 
of Relation between Manner and Matter — Technique of 
Expression — Mental Must Lead — Divisions of the 
Subject ... . i — 12 

CHAPTER I. 

MOODS OF UTTERANCE. 

Predominant Purpose — Deliberation, Discrimination, Emo- 
tion, Energy — Intellectual, Emotional, and Volitional 
Utterances — Examples — Ultimate and Temporary Pur- 
poses — Time Measurements — Action Suited to Delibera- 
tion — Inflection — Discriminative Gesture — Quality — 
Pantomimic Expression of Emotion — Energy — Gesture 
of Energy — "General Force " and "Stress" — Relation 
of Moods ...... 13 — 22 

CHAPTER II. 

DELIBERATION. 

Definition — Introductory, Propositional and Transitional 
Matter — Movement as Expressing Deliberative Matter — 
Pauses — Principle of Pause — Places of Pause — Grammat- 
ical Pauses — Rhetorical, or Elliptical Pauses — Prosodial 
Pauses — Oratorical, or Melodic Pauses . . 23 — 34 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 

Statement of Purpose — Utterance the Speaker's Measure- 
ment of the Thought — Benefits of Restating — Subject- 
ive Paraphrase — Objective — Expansive — Condensative — 
Elliptical or Parenthetical — Prosaic . . 35 — 55 

CHAPTER IV. 

DISCRIMINATION. 

Discernment of Relations — Inflection — Completeness — Fi- 
nality — Momentary Completeness — Incompleteness, dif- 
ferent forms, as Subordination, Anticipation, Negation, 
Doubt, Interrogation, Supplication — Assertion — As- 
sumption — Complex Relations, Comparison or Contrast 
with Completeness or Assertion, Comparison or Contrast 
with Incompleteness, Affirmation with Incompleteness 
— Examples and Directions for Study . . 56 — 75 

CHAPTER V. 

THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 

Paraphrase to Reveal Completeness or Incompleteness — To 

Show Assertion and Assumption — Complex Relations 76 — 93 

CHAPTER VI. 

EMOTION. 

Definition — Means of Expression — Normal Feeling — Pure 
Quality — Enlarged, or Deepened Feeling — Expanded 
Pure, or Orotund Quality — Suppressed Feeling — Aspi- 
rated Quality — Harsh Feeling — The Rigid or Tense 
Voice — Oppressed, or Covered Feeling — Pectoral Quality 
— Agitated Feeling — Tremulous Quality — Caution . 94 — 114 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 

Objective — Subjective — Paraphrase to Reveal Normal Feel- 
ing — Enlarged, or Deepened — Suppressed — Harsh or 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll 

Severe — Oppressed, or Covered — Agitated, or Tremulous 
— Perceptive Power Increased — Impression Vivified and 
Deepened ...... 115 — 144 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ENERGY. 

Concerned with the Will — General and Special — Abruptness, 
in different types, as Animated Explanation, Prompt 
Decision, Arbitrary Command, Surprise, Impatience, 
Petulance — Initial Stress — Insistence of Settled Deter- 
mination, Dignity, Authority — Final Stress — Enlarge- 
ment or Expansion with Pressure, expressing Encourage- 
ment, Adoration and Admiration with Purpose to Move 
Listeners to Same — Joy or Exultation, with Purpose to 
Lead Others to Rejoice — Median Stress — Prolonged 
Enforcement — Thorough Stress — Violence — Compound 
Stress — Directions for Study . . 145 — 159 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 

Objective — Subjective— Paraphrase Illustrating Abruptness 
— Insistence — Expansion with Pressure — Prolonged En- 
forcement — Violence— Hints as to Study . . 160 — 172 

CHAPTER X. 

GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 

General vs. Particular — Broader Measurements — Thought as 
a Whole — Movement — Rhythm, Verse and Prose 
Rhythm, Analogies — Keys — Pitches of Different Voices 
— Intervals — Quality, General and Special — Practical 
Study of Qualities — General Force as Distinguished 
from Stress . . . . . , 173 — 191 

CHAPTER XL 

GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

Broad Sense and Narrow — Proofs of the Relation of Gesture 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

to Thought — Subjective Properties of Action — Objective 
Properties, giving Literal and Physical Representation, 
Metaphorical Representation, Ideal Presence, Energy 
or Intensity — Pantomimic Paraphrase . . 192 — 201 

CHAPTER XII. 

. VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 

Relation of Mental and Physical — Table of Exercises — The 
Chest; Poise, Expansion of Trunk, Arm Movements, 
Special Expansion of Parts, Diaphragm, Upper Chest, 
Sides, Back — Chest Percussion — Breathings, Slow and 
Rapid — Counting — Sentences and Passages — Relation of 
Breath to Rhetorical Significance — Throat, Liberation, 
Ease, Flexibility, Shaking Larynx, "Koo" Exercises, 
Test of Freedom, Selections — Jaw, Liberation, Singing 
Exercises, Varied Rhythms — Tongue, Position, Action — 
Oral Cavity, Shape, Humming, Vowels, Poetry — Vocal 
Chords, Staccato Hum, Short Vowels, Musical Exercises 
— Articulating Organs, Lip Strokes, Tongue Action — 
Abdominal Muscles, Right, Oblique, Transverse, Uses, 
Directions for Training .... 202 — 239 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CRITICISM. 

Art-work Tested by Criticism — Necessity — Popular — Tech- 
nical — Individuality in Speaking — Objective Properties 
in Delivery — Subjective Properties — Purpose and Para- 
phrase — Helpfulness . 240—245 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE RELATION OF ELOCUTION TO 
RHETORIC. 

The physical preparation for speech brings with 
it advantages so obvious that it is scarcely neces- 
sary to designate its place in a course of practical 
training, or invite attention to its aims and to the 
benefits which it confers. Grace and suitability 
of action, purity, ease, fulness and variety of tone, 
and the incidental benefits to respiration, circula- 
tion, and general physical vigor — all these have 
of late years been made so familiar to us, and are 
so palpably reasonable, that it has become almost 
a work of supererogation to press their claims. 

Not quite so clear or tangible are the place and 
claim of the other branch of the elocutionary art 
— the analysis of thought through tone. Con- 
sidered by itself, it is one of the departments of the 
study of language, and might find a place and 
yield some benefit at almost any point after struc- 
ture of sentences has been mastered. Its benefits 
will be much greater when the student has gained 
some knowledge of formal Rhetoric, and has begun, 
at least, to appreciate the literary spirit. It will 
yield its finest and fullest fruits in a mind thor- 
oughly cultivated by a variety of studies, broad- 
ened and quickened by experience of men and 



2 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

affairs, mellowed by human sympathies, inspired 
and elevated by noble purposes. 

Practically it is best to begin the study early in 
the college course. 

It is for the present assumed that this subject 
has the most natural connection with rhetorical 
and literary studies, and it is hoped the considera- 
tions here presented will justify this view. 

Observe, first, a few general facts regarding 
expression, and later, some of a more particular 
nature. 

I. General Considerations. 

i. Elocution, or oral expression, presupposes, of 
course, some thought to be expressed. Delivery 
does not make thought nor in any sense supply its 
place. Those entertainments which consist of a 
display of voice and gesture, of dramatic repre- 
sentation and startling stage effects, may be elocu- 
tionary in a sense, but do not belong to that which 
is of interest to thinking men with something to 
say. Agreeable sounds and combinations of sound 
are not the end in speech even in the sense in 
which they are such in music. 

Neither amusement nor aesthetic satisfaction 
meets the requirements of rhetorical delivery. 

Elocution regards first of all the thought and 
views the thought as being in the process of com- 
munication. In order to be communicated it must 
first be formulated in the mind of the thinker, i. e., 
prepared for statement, with regard always (a) to 
the intrinsic properties of the thought, (b) to the effect 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

upon the mind addressed. It is thus, primarily, 
objective rather than subjective. It conforms 
itself to the principles of logic and of rhetoric, not 
to the whim or feeling of the speaker. It is a mat. 
ter of thought-measurement, and of adaptation of 
means to end. 

2. Elocution, or oral presentation of thought, re- 
gards the thought as addressed to the ear; 
hence it employs as its media all the varied proper- 
ties of tone through which the human mind can 
reveal itself, giving a wider range of means than 
writing — all that writing can give and much more. 

Elocution, then, in the best sense, is the study of 
thought in its connection with vocal expresssion, 
or of thought through tone. 

3. Observe two general ways in which vocal- 
ized thought modifies written thought. These 
will give us a better notion of the vital connection 
between elocution and rhetoric. 

A. The effect which vocal utterance produces 
upon the structure itself. 

B. The additional thought which may be 
implied and virtually incorporated by the tones 
of the voice, assisting us to fully interpret another. 

A. First, then, as to its effect upon rhetorical 
structure. 

(1) The ear can receive but one word at a time, 
while the eye can take in a group of words, often 
an entire sentence, at one glance. 

(2) The attention of the listener is carried stead- 
ily forward, as fast or as slowly as the speaker 
may choose to move. 



4 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

The silent reader, on the other hand, is free to 
pause and cast his eye back over the preceding 
sentence, paragraph or page, and so gather up the 
thought anew at every difficult junction, or he 
may go as rapidly as possible, not stopping for any 
reflection or review. Pauses there may be, in- 
deed, in oral delivery, but they can be utilized by the 
listener only through an effort of memory, recalling 
and combining. Listening to speech is like read- 
ing from a book held by another person who 
should uncover one word or phrase at a time, and 
at every pause shut the volume before you. Think 
how much more mental effort would thus be 
required, and how much more simple, straightfor- 
ward and logically progressive must be the style 
in order to be retained in your mind. A diffusive, 
involved style, if it should be so read, piecemeal, 
would baffle almost any attempt. If ever a person 
does attempt to speak in such a diffusive style, his 
listeners usually get only a general and confused 
idea of his meaning. Such productions — virtu- 
ally essays — are, it is true, often delivered as ora- 
tions in college exercises and, rarely, from the 
literary platform, but they always seem vague, dis- 
tant and complicated. They never have the tell- 
ing force of direct, sententious talk. 

The essay style in sacred eloquence has done 
much to remove the pulpit from the pews. Such 
direct and simple style as that employed by 
Finney, Spurgeon, Talmage, Moody, whatever 
defects it may possess, always stands out clear and 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

strong, and produces a marked effect. It is not to 
be thought that the essay or lecture style has no 
place in public address, or that extempore speech 
is always most effective. There are great dangers 
connected with the so-called " off-hand " style, dan- 
gers which a habit of careful writing will avert. 
All that is claimed here is that the limited receiv- 
ing capacity of the ear reacts upon style favorably, 
tending to clearness, conciseness, directness, log- 
ical sequence; and economizing the receptive energy 
in cases that must employ a more difficult style. 
What lawyer dares to read an essay to a jury, or 
to talk in an elaborate, intricate style ? On the 
other hand if the necessities of the thought do 
require a more involved style of writing, delivery 
can compensate for this by more skillful group- 
ing of phrases and clauses, by significant inflections, 
and especially by variations in the rate of utter- 
ance. 

Remark. — It is worth while to remark here that a student 
should train himself in two things, (i) to hear as many words as 
possible with one mental effort, grouping and arranging while he 
listens, (2) to regulate his writing by mentally hearing ( or actu- 
ally speaking) every sentence as it flows from the pen. The ear 
thus sits as a "governor" on a steam engine " regulating the sup- 
ply of steam according to the resistance to be overcome." 

B. The second effect which vocal delivery may 
produce upon the thought as written, consists in 
modifications by variations of tone. These 
modifications may be so strongly implied as to be- 
come virtually incorporated into the thought itself. 
The tones thus assist (a) in interpretation of what we 



6 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

hear, (b) in conveying fuller meaning by the same 
words. Such incorporation could be found in 
almost infinite variety and illustrated by number- 
less examples. A few obvious cases are the fol- 
lowing: 

(i) Additional matter implied. A person 
quoting some strong utterance will often supply in 
actual words a thought which, in the original utter- 
ance, was only implied by an inflection. It is not 
simply addition which is effected by the tones of 
the voice. 

(2) The thought may as often be weakened, 
as in rendering a compliment tardily or indiffer- 
ently, as, " He spoke very well." 

(3) Or the tone may suggest comparison, as, 
"This is my view." 

(4) It may »be intensified or energized, as, 
"never," or, it may be, 

(5) Clothed with the weight of dig-nity or 
authority, even as much as by an additional 
formal statement of vested power; such must have 
been our Lord's " Verily, verily." 

(6) The tone may imply an emotional sig- 
nificance, as, " Do not leave me here." 

Examples. Find or make illustrations of these 
six modifications. 

Now in listening we do unite with the bare 
image or predication, as contained in the written 
words themselves, such meaning as the tones 
impart, thus enlarging, intensifying, comparing, 
restricting, or, as in the case of irony, absolutely 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

inverting, the meaning which the words as printed 
would convey. Furthermore, we add to our 
modified conception of the thought as an object- 
ive product some estimate of the speaker's sub- 
jective relation to the thought, i. e., his feeling 
or interest in it. 

This significance, which we thus attach to tones, 
is for the most part recognized intuitively. There 
is a natural symbolism in sound, as there is in 
action ; the one appealing to the ear much as the 
other does to the eye. There is also, perhaps, a 
small percentage of effect resulting from mean- 
ings which men have conventionally agreed upon. 
However derived, these effects of tone are real 
comments upon the thought. This is true not 
only in regard to the interpretation of other peo- 
ple's thought as heard. Of yet more value, per- 
haps, and of more present interest, as constituting 
the basis for the study of practical elocution, is the 
fact that when we seek to express thought by our 
own voices we do add to the mere words as writ- 
ten many accompanying thoughts and comments. 
These additions, direct and parenthetical, if writ- 
ten in full, would quite swamp the thought of 
any ordinarily suggestive paragraph. The prac- 
tical effect of such amplifications may occasion- 
ally be witnessed in some garrulous individual 
who while talking " thinks aloud." Though these 
accompanying comments and reflections are not 
to be spoken, they are to be thought. In a reason- 
ably expressive paragraph or sentence as many 



8 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

words will be implied, on an average, as are 
spoken. These implied additional words, if 
distinctly thought at the moment of uttering 
the others, impart to those spoken a fulness of sig- 
nificance which can scarcely be realized in any 
other way. The measurement of these mental 
processes and the noting of them in suggestive 
hints accompanying the text, will constitute 
expressioual paraphrase, which will be devel- 
oped in connection with many parts of this book. 

Oral communication, then, supplements the rhet- 
oric by adding, at the least expense of time and 
attention, much real meaning, often not the least 
important part of the thought. Even a gesture 
may signify more than could be told in a whole 
paragraph. Illustrations of this may be seen daily 
in movements of the hand, shrug of the shoulder, 
carriage of the head, elevation or contraction of 
brows, and the like. 

Examples. — Recall or imagine expressive ges- 
tures, reproduce them, with explanation of circum- 
stances if necessary, and translate the action into 
words. 

Proofs of this Relation Between Manner 
and Matter. 

The most obvious proof of this proposition, 
that oral delivery supplements rhetoric, is found 
in the familiar fact that we ordinarily feel satisfied 
of a person's real meaning only after conversing 
with him. The exceptional cases in which tone and 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

manner confuse rather than clear the sense, only 
prove their real significance, and show the propor- 
tion of effect which we intuitively accord to them. 
An oral recitation, if you can eliminate embarrass- 
ment and other disturbing influences, will give the 
most satisfactory exhibition of the student's knowl- 
edge of a subject. In an important law case the 
essential testimony is produced by the speaking 
witness rather than by deposition, because the 
manner of the witness is a factor in determining 
his fitness to testify and the accuracy of his 
knowledge ; and it will often be observed that an 
unlucky pause, or a timid inflection, or a downcast 
eye, will at once demand additional questions and 
statements. Gough's lectures would lose a very 
large portion of their significance — in some cases 
almost one hundred per cent. — by being printed, 
and yet his speaking was not clap-trap. By his 
enthusiasm, magnetism, and elocution, he did 
vastly more than amuse. His manner was a teach- 
ing. His presence and voice added a real, and in 
his case, an essential part to the thought. 

With all reverence we may refer to the Perfect 
Teacher. He left no written treatise, nor ever, so 
far as we know, read a written lecture or sermon. 
He made the great addition to the written law by 
personal intercourse with men, by talking with the 
woman at the well, by familiarly addressing the 
throngs that covered the banks of Genessaret. 

Expression is often thought to be merely the 
result of natural gifts, the manifestation of genius. 



IO GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

So, perhaps, it is in its highest form ; but, like most 
other gifts, it may be indefinitely cultivated where 
it is present, and may usually be developed even 
where seemingly absent. 

In order to have free and full expression, two 
things are necessary : 

i. One must have something to say, and have the 
disposition to communicate. 

2. The channels for communication must be so 
prepared that the thought shall flow with a fair 
degree of spontaneity. 

The first requisite is presupposed, as a matter 
of course ; yet it sustains an intimate relation with 
the second. The relation is one of mutual assist- 
ance — of interdependence. It is, perhaps, as true 
that the opening of the channels for communica- 
tion affects both the disposition to communicate 
and the thought that shall be uttered, as it is true 
that the thought in the mind and the impulse to 
utter it provide a way for such utterance. 

II. Special Features in the Study of Vocal 
Expression. 

Mind and bodv so react upon each other that 
we may not say this part is only physical ; that, 
simply mental. Each throb of feeling, though its 
cause be only spiritual, moves sensibly some por- 
tion of the physical frame. It shows itself in 
quickened pulse, in heated brain, or starting per- 
spiration, or contracting muscle. The world's 
great poet has said : 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

"And when the mind is quickened, out of doubt, 
The organs, though defunct and dead before, 
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move 
With casted slough and fresh legerity." 

With equal truth the converse may be said : 
that when the organs, " tho' defunct and dead 
before," receive a quickening and a strengthening, 
their influence reacts upon the source which 
started it, the mind. Every power of the body is 
the channel for the outflow of some life and action 
of the soul. There lie in every nature hidden 
springs of thought, emotion, and activity, over 
whose mouths the debris of inaction, inefficient 
will, or ignorance, or evil habit has accumulated 
so as to choke the natural flow. 

But once remove obstructions, and the clear, 
refreshing stream appears to draw upon its source, 
until the stagnant pool becomes the living foun- 
tain. 

A twofold training of the man is thus contem- 
plated in the study of Oral Expression. It 
includes (a) the measurement of thought as in pro- 
cess of communication, or, the analysis of the 
expressional elements of thought ; (b) the mastery 
of the physical means of expression. Both of 
these — the mental and the physical training — 
together constitute the technique of expres- 
sion. 

The relation of the two elements in this tech- 
nical development, will appear as we proceed in 
the study. Let it here suffice to say that the 
niental must lead. Thought-measurements 



12 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

must be made first ; and secondly we must find 
what properties of tone and action naturally fit 
and represent these properties of thought. 

We shall take up, first, the moods of utterance, 
then each mood separately, in the details of its 
application, giving,' at each step, the property of 
tone and action naturally suiting it ; afterward, 
some study of the General Properties of Utter- 
ance ; and lastly, some hints on Individuality in 
Utterance, and on Criticism. 



GUIDE 

T O 

RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 



CHAPTER I. 

MOODS OF UTTERANCE. 

We have glanced at some of the principles 
underlying vocal expression of thought, and have 
seen that there are two departments in the study, 
the mental and the physical. The logical order is : 
first, the thought, viewed in the light of the 
purpose for which it is to be communicated ; then, 
the means of accomplishing that purpose ; rhetor- 
ical, or thought-measuring processes first, after- 
ward the thought-figuring properties of tone and 
action. 

In the broadest sense the properties of thought 
as related to communication constitute the Moods 
of Utterance. In a narrower sense, they deter- 
mine " emphasis." The narrow and particular 
will most naturally find place under the broader 
and more general. 

By Mood of Utterance is meant the prevailing 
or predominant pnrpose in the article, para- 
graph, or sentence before the mind. 

Of course, different purposes will often mingle 



14 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

at the same instant, and the central purpose may 
change sometimes with great rapidity. But, how- 
ever frequent the changes of leading purpose, or 
however complex the motive at any instant, there 
must be in rational thought at every moment some 
predominant motive and purpose. This ruling 
motive the intelligent speaker always knows in the 
case of original thought ; and to discover it in the 
case of quoted or written thought, is the business 
of the intelligent and sympathetic reader. 

As an aid to such tracing of the controlling 
purposes, the following analysis of the Moods of 
Utterance is suggested : 

i. Deliberation, addressing directly the intel- 
lect, and employing chiefly the tone-element of 
Time. 

2. Discrimination, addressing also the intel- 
lect, but employing chiefly the element of Pitch. 

3. Emotion, addressing immediately the sen- 
sibilities, and employing chiefly the tone-element 
of Quality. 

4. Energy, addressing the will, and employing 
chiefly the tone-element of Force. 

It will be observed that Deliberation and Dis- 
crimination are alike in that both address the 
intellect rather than the sensibilities or the will. 
They differ in this ; viz., Deliberation rather pre- 
sents facts as simple and unrelated, while Discrim- 
ination presents them special^ in relations, as 
comparison, contrast, completeness, and incom- 
pleteness. The particular force of this distinction 
will appear later in the study. 



MOODS OF UTTERANCE. I 5 

Another reason for making this division is the 
difference, already obvious, in the means of 
expressing the two. Deliberation is shown 
through Time ; Discrimination through Pitch. 

A third reason is one of convenience. The class 
of utterances which primarily address the intellect 
is so large that it is found much easier to treat 
them in two main divisions than in one. 

Considering these two, however, as philosoph- 
ically one, inasmuch as both appeal to the same 
department of the mind, we should have but three 
essential classes of utterances, the Intellectual, 
the Emotional, and the Volitional. 

The simple types must be studied separately 
before their combinations can be profitably or 
rightly considered. 

Illustrations of different moods of utterance may 
be found by analyzing almost any speech in which 
appear the purposes of information, or statement 
of fact; of discrimination, or discernment of rela- 
tions ; of appeal to feeling ; and incitement to 
action. Take, for example, Mark Antony's 
funeral oration over the body of Caesar. Con- 
sider all the circumstances and see the need of 
these different elements at different stages of the 
address. At first, he must simply state to the 
excited populace the reasons for his appearing 
before them, and his personal relations to the dead 
man. This he must do without calling up any 
comparisons or contrasts, without manifesting any 
particular emotion himself, or saying anything 



1 6 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

that shall cause any excitation of passion in the 
crowd. It is but plain, simple statement of facts. 
This is the mood of Deliberation, the annunciatory 
or declarative mood. 

Soon, however, he finds it necessary to present 
considerations which suggest ideas in distinct 
relations, especially that of comparison and con- 
trast, which appears so prominently in the discus- 
sion of Caesar's alleged " ambition." This is done 
so adroitly that you scarcely see at first the 
entrance of another motive or purpose ; but soon 
you discover the momentary predominance of the 
mood of Discrimination. Bare statement of sepa- 
rate facts, comparatively unrelated, or at least 
presented for separate consideration, has now 
given place to the presentation of related facts, 
with the evident purpose of having them con- 
sidered in their relations. 

When he appeals to the popular love for Caesar 
it is with obvious intent to awaken emotion. 
Facts, separate and related, have led to this, but 
now the present motive is to move the sensibilities. 
Hence we merge into the Emotional Mood, the 
immediate, momentary purpose being to manifest 
his own feeling (by pretending to conceal it) and 
to awaken similar emotions in his auditors. 

But the orator has not finished yet. Facts, 
relations of facts and truths, even deep feeling, do 
not exist for themselves, but for some ultimate use 
to be made of them. There is something to be 
done. The will must be aroused and guided, 



MOODS OF UTTERANCE. 1 7 

either directly or indirectly. The speaker's own 
will now bears upon the will of his listeners. This 
energizing force, this evident purpose to move 
them to some resolution, or voluntary attitude, or 
definite action, characterizes and names the Mood 
of Energy. 

Thus Antony has passed, by distinctly traceable 
steps, through the different Moods of Utterance, 
appealing, first to the intellect, by facts, separate 
and related, then to the sensibilities, and lastly to 
the will. He has addressed in turn every faculty 
of his hearers, and by observing the natural order 
of approach, he has captured the very stronghold 
of the enemy, he has accomplished the greatest 
feat possible to mortals, the moving of an antag- 
onistic will. He has shown himself an orator. 

So did Beecher when he found the people of 
England adverse to the cause of the United States 
government during the civil war, and left them 
enlightened, persuaded, convinced, changed 
largely in their attitude toward our government. 

So did Wendell Phillips when, facing the angry 
crowd in Faneuil Hall, he turned them from the 
attitude of sympathy with the murderers of Love- 
joy to that of toleration or even enthusiasm for 
the cause in which the martyr had died. 

But it is not alone in what is technically called 
oratory that the skillful use of these Moods of 
Utterance may be discerned. Essays, letters, any 
form of communication may embody them. 

An analysis of the fifteenth chapter of First Cor- 

3 



1 8 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

inthians will reveal similar progression of thought 
through these different moods, which will demand, 
in turn, the varying properties of utterance which 
it is the business of elocutionary analysis to point 
out. 

In the chapter referred to, the first eleven verses 
are predominantly deliberative ; verses 12-23 par- 
take more of discrimination or definite relations of 
ideas ; the same will be found to predominate in 
verses 35-49 ; emotion appears as the leading 
characteristic in such passages as verses 55-57 ; 
while the closing verse of the chapter is plainly 
energetic, being designed to bear upon the will 
and move to definite attitude and action. 

Now the analyzing of speeches, articles, and 
special passages in literature of almost any form, 
will develop an insight into the dominating pur- 
poses, which change frequently and sometimes 
almost imperceptibly, but which give a rational 
basis for determining the requisite properties of 
utterance, either in reading or in speaking. 

This part of the work constitutes the distinct- 
ively rhetorical side of the technique of expression ; 
and it cannot fail, if conscientiously done, to 
awaken the general logical and literary sense, 
while it directly prepares for oral delivery. 

Examples. — Take speeches, sermons, essays, 
chapters of books, passages from poems, dialogues, 
conversations, etc., and detect the predominating 
purposes in the utterance, whether to inform of facts 
and truths, to point out relations of thoughts or 



MOODS OF UTTERANCE. IQ 

things, to awaken feeling, or to affect the will. 
These purposes, thus determined by your best 
judgment, will lead you to mark the passages, as 
above indicated. The analysis may regard two 
things, 1 st, the general mood, which will be your 
naming of the ultimate governing purpose in the 
article as a whole ; 2nd, the temporary, or moment- 
ary moods, which will measure the direct and im- 
mediate motive in each brief portion — as para- 
graph, or sentence — taken by itself. The moment- 
ary will usually be decided in the light of the 
ultimate, which should, of course, be determined 
first. 

Often it will be impossible, without prolonged 
study and reflection, to decide satisfactorily upon 
these " moods " ; but renewed attempts will surely 
bring facility, and the process, if continued until 
the mind works in this analytic way with some 
freedom and spontaneity, will effectually prevent 
imitation and will do much to secure individuality 
and genuineness in interpretation. 

While considering the moods in this broader 
view it will be helpful to keep in mind the equally 
broad divisions of tone-properties. In the follow- 
ing chapters the more specific applications of the 
one will be joined with the more minute measure- 
ments of the other. 

In order that the analysis may be tangible and 
practical, we need just here to premise as much 
as this with respect to the general properties of 
tone and action, which fit these moods of utterance. 



20 . GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Deliberative Emphasis is expressed chiefly 
by Time, measured in paragraph, sentence, 
phrase or word. 

(i) The general movement, as fast, medium, 
slow, is applied to paragraph and sentence and is 
called Rate. 

(2) The momentary cessations of sound, applied 
to phrase and word, are called Pauses. These 
are divided into : 

(a) Grammatical, indicating relation of elements, 
whether punctuated or not. 

{b) Rhetorical, suggesting some thought addi- 
tional to that expressed in the words. 

(c) Prosodial, marking foot, caesura, or verse. 

(d) Melodic or rhythmic, expressing dignity, 
gravity or beauty, and producing a prose-rhythm 
like that of poetry, but less regular. 

(3) A prolongation of sound to impart more of 
gravity or emotion, applied to words or syllables, 
is called Quantity. 

Action naturally suited to Deliberation. 
— Composure, ease and firmness are the general 
properties. They express self-possession, with a 
readiness to open and unfold ideas. The gestures 
are less frequent, less varied, less intense, and less 
expressive of feeling than in the other moods. 
Deliberative action, like " Time " in the voice, is 
the most negative form of expression. 

In the limited use of gesture, which is appropri- 
ate to the Deliberative Mood, the position of the 
body becomes specially important. 



MOODS OF UTTERANCE. 21 

Discrimination is expressed chiefly by Inflec- 
tion. This is a variation in pitch occurring on 
single words, and as distinctive slides, circumflexes, 
and waves. It is thus distinguished from " Mel- 
ody," which belongs to sentences and paragraphs, 
and also from the slight vanishing slide of " con- 
crete tone," which pervades all speech. 

Discriminative Gesture often consists in 
Opposition or Contrast of Movement. Con- 
trast in gesture, as in inflection, is a natural 
expression of antithesis, which underlies most dis- 
criminative utterance. 

Emotion is expressed vocally by the Quality 
of the tone. Quality or " color " depends upon 
the degree of Purity and of Volume, or of harsh- 
ness, breathiness, or interruption of tone. 

The pantomimic expression of emotion is almost 
too broad to be given in any single term. It 
consists, generally, in changes of posture, and by 
the special positions and textures of the different 
parts of the body, especially of the face, shoulders, 
and hands. 

Energy is expressed chiefly through Force. 
This includes both intensity and volume of tone. 
It is : (i) General, applied to the passage as a 
whole ; (2) Special, applied to individual words. 
Special force is called " Stress." 

Energy is expressed through gesture by 
directness, strength, and rapidity, always 
proportional to the degree of energy, as indicated 
by the voice. (1) " General Force " is expressed 



22 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

more by strength of posture and carriage of head 
and chest ; (2) " Stress," more by specific gesture. 

Energy must be studied in reference to the 
emotional property which prompts it ; and in 
reference to the deliberative and discriminative 
properties of thought; which give rise to the emo- 
tion. There is a logical sequence in these " moods 
of utterance." 

The student needs to practice for some time on 
this broader analysis by moods, before taking up 
the different moods in detail. This stage of the 
work answers to "outlining" in written rhetoric. 



CHAPTER II. 

DELIBERATION. 

As the best practical method of elocutionary 
analysis, we will now take up in detail these four 
leading moods of utterance. 

Deliberation as a mood of utterance is, subject- 
ively, the state of mind — the purpose with reference 
to the audience — which favors the quiet, orderly 
preparation for and presentation of fact, scene, 
narrative, exposition, or argument, without special 
antithesis, force, or excitement. 

Objectively, it is that property in utterance which 
directly addresses the intellect, rather than the 
emotions or the will. Its chief office is to invite 
the attention to that which is new, preparatory, or 
connective. Hence, special occasions are in : 

A. Introductory Matter. (i) Explanatory, (2) 
conciliatory, (3) incentive, (4) adaptive. Give four 
rhetorical introductions. 

B. Propositional Matter. (1) Formal proposi- 
tions, (2) definitions, (3) all thought logically 
important, weighty, or conclusive. Give two 
examples of each kind. 

C. Transitional Matter. Whatever merely con- 
nects one division, paragraph, or sentence with 
another. The requisite of transitional matter is the 
same in utterance as in composition ; i. e., it must 
be connective. 



24 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

The rhetorical significance of Deliberation 
shows it to be the most normal of the moods. 

It is unimpassioned and represents the commun- 
icating mind as naturally, easily, presenting ideas. 
It possesses a degree of animation which does not 
reach excitement ; it may imply some enlistment 
of feeling, but stops far short of passion. It 
is objective rather than subjective. Its tone- 
exponent will accordingly be the most normal 
action of the voice, having a certain elasticity, 
answering to the mild animation, and an agreeable 
musical quality corresponding to the healthful pleas- 
ure of natural communication, and a spontaneous, 
self-propagating enunciation and resonance, typify- 
ing the objective character of the utterance. 
There will be little to call attention to the subject- 
ive condition of the speaker. 

All these elements constitute the "normal" 
action of voice, such as the exercises upon our 
chart are meant to secure. 

It is a style of voice less marked and noticeable 
than those styles Avhich express the other moods. 
The deliberative elements of thought will be sym- 
bolized mainly by time-measurements in delivery. 

These have been given in general, but will be 
added more in detail in connection with each sub- 
division in the rhetorical analysis of expression. 

A. Introductory Matter of whatever kind. 
(a) The explanatory introduction exhibits it in its 
purest type, since there is usually nothing but the 
placing before the listener of simple fact matter, 



DELIBERATION. 25 

in anticipation of some further use to be made of 
such matter or of related matter to which this 
may lead. The purely deliberative nature of such 
introductory matter is seen in the fact that it 
appeals to nothing but the intelligence. 

(b) The adaptive introduction naturally employs 
some discrimination, since comparison is almost 
necessarily prominent in adaptation. Yet this dis- 
criminative element is plainly subservient to the 
deliberative purpose of calling attention to the 
thing to be said or done. Example. — Introduction 
to the Acts of the Apostles, also any skillful intro- 
duction of a speaker by the chairman of a meeting. 

(c) The conciliatory introduction may be modi- 
fied by any discrimination, and usually will be 
tinged with emotion, yet, as an introduction, its main 
purpose is to present considerations to the under- 
standing. It is, therefore, truly deliberative. 

Examples. — Speeches of Brutus and Antony in " Julius Caesar." 
"Against the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, I cannot 

have the slightest prejudice ; I would not do him the smallest 

injury or injustice." — Webster. 

(d) The incentive introduction is designed to 
move the will, but this is subordinate to the delib- 
erative purpose of gaining the attention. Other- 
wise it is not truly introductory. 

Example. — This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous 
moment. — Chatham. 

Introductory matter usually requires a medium 
movement tending to slow, because the thought 
is presumably new, not apprehended. The atti- 
tude is that of " Repose"; action, slight, usually 
no gesture. 



26 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

B. Propositional Matter is explained, per- 
haps sufficiently, by the name, which is employed 
with much of its etymological meaning in mind. It 
is, essentially, whatever lays down or places before 
the mind that which has some weight in itself. 

It differs from introduction in that introduction 
leads to something following, while proposition is 
the thing to which the thought has been led. 

There is thus an element of finality in it — a 
settled, substantial character not found in any 
other form of deliberation. It is the nearest to 
energy, from which it differs by not appealing to 
the will. It appeals to the intelligence with the 
greatest force. It includes : 

i. Formal propositions, as, 

" The principle involved is that of individual liberty." 
" A straight line cannot meet the circumference in more than 
two points." 

2. Definitions, as, 

" Gravity is the tendency of a mass of matter toward the center 
of attraction." 

" Communism is an attempt to overthrow the institutions of 
private property." 

3. All thought logically important, weighty, or 
conclusive, as, 

" God hath not cast away his people whom He foreknew." 
" I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain." 
" There is no refuge from suicide but in confession, and suicide 
is confession." 

Propositional matter requires slow movement, to 
typify the graver importance and weight. Atti- 
tude of Force in Repose, Animation or Physical 
Support. 



DELIBERATION. 2J 

C. Transitional Matter. — This includes what- 
ever merely connects one division, paragraph, or 
sentence with another. 

Example. — "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you 
that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." — 
Eph. iv. i, seeming a transition between the two main divisions 
of the epistle. 

" And then besides his unimpeachable character he had what 
is half the power of a popular orator, a majestic presence." — 
Wendell Phillips on O'Connell. 

" But now as he alluded to Massachussetts, the feelings were 
strained to the highest tension." 

The natural and rhetorical requirements of a 
good transition must be kept in mind in order 
fully to appreciate the kind of utterance it 
demands. Connecting the two thoughts between 
which it stands, it assumes at least one of them, 
usually the first, to be already in the mind. Hence 
more rapid movement and a lighter tone will be 
allowable, especially in the first part of a transition. 
Toward its close the transitional passage will often 
merge into propositional, as it approaches newer 
or more important matter. 

There will generally be a change in the attitude 
of the body, often in the position on the floor. 
This change typifies the transition in thought, and 
occurs during the transitional words. 

Time Measurement More Particularly 
Considered. 

As has been already said, the tone-element that 
specially expresses Deliberation, is Time. 



28 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Time may be measured in its general application 
in the entire passage ; it is then called rate. 

Rate will vary with the kind of deliberative 
matter. The transitional as a rule requires the 
fastest, and the proposition^ the slowest; the 
introductory being medium. The reasons for this 
will appear, on reflection as to the nature and pur- 
pose of these different kinds of deliberative matter. 
Rate is the equalized, distributed, average move- 
ment. It does not appear in huddled syllables, 
nor in chasms of silence. The voice may be 
sounding almost continuously in a slow movement ; 
or, it may be silent often, in a quick rate. 

A more thorough study of rate comes later. 
For the present our end will best be secured by a 
study of Grouping of Elements. 

The clearness of announcement, or deliberative 
emphasis in all varieties of this mood, is largely 
affected by the measurement of the words in 
phrases or groups. This grouping is effected by 
pauses or momentary cessations of sound. They 
are of four kinds. 

(i) Grammatical, indicating relation of elements, 
whether punctuated or not. 

(2) Rhetorical, suggesting some thought addi- 
tional to that expressed in the words. 

(3) Prosodial, marking foot, caesura, or verse. 

(4) Rhythmic or melodic, expressing dignity, 
gravity, or beauty, and producing a prose-rhythm 
like that of poetry, but less regular. 



DELIBERATION. 29 

Grammatical Pauses. — These merely assist 
the grouping of words into constituent elements of 
the sentence. Such pauses are the most mechan- 
ical of all, being a mere cessation of speech. They 
are like the breaks that separate the group of 
sounds in telegraphy, or like the spacing and par- 
agraphing on the printed page. They might be 
represented by dots, dashes, and lines, expressing 
pauses of different lengths. Every element in the 
sentence must be separated appreciably from the 
other elements. 

Principle of Pause. 

1. Elements that are simple, and placed close 
together have the slightest pause-separation. This 
may be indicated by a mere dot (-). 2. Elements 
somewhat complex, or slightly separated in the 
structure, require somewhat greater pause which 
might be indicated by a short dash ( — ). 3. Ele- 
ments very complex or widely separated in the 
sentence must have larger pause. This might be 

represented by a longer dash or short line ( ). 

Illustrations: — (1) John - came. John - came - 
yesterday. (2) St. John — the brother-in-law of 
Adams, the tailor — came — as soon as he 

heard - the terrible - news. (3) David so great 

was his interest in the case returned - to the 

city — on the first - train — that left — after he 
had finished - his necessary - business. 

Places for Pause. — i. Between subject and 
predicate, when the subject is a substantive or 



30 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

anything used as such, or a pronoun, if interrog- 
ative or demonstrative. The personal or the rela- 
tive pronoun together with the verb of the depend- 
ent clause often forms an element equivalent to a 
mere participle, adjective, or adverb. In such 
cases the clause is the unit, and between its elements 
there need be no pause. This is true of any 
element used pronominally, adjectively, or 
adverbially. 

2. Between a principal element (as subject or 
predicate) and its modifiers. An element of the 
first class — a single word — requires the shortest 
pause (-). One of the second — a phrase — some- 
what longer ( — ). One of the third — a clause — 
longer still ( ). 

3. Before and after parenthesis, interjection, 
illative, or vocative. 

N. B. — Illustrate all the above. 

Remarks. — 1. Connectives, used strictly as such, generally 
obviate necessity for pause. 2. Pauses have no absolute length. 
3. Punctuation is no adequate guide. Analyze the sentence. 

4. In speaking of the remaining kinds of pauses 
we are obliged to anticipate somewhat the other 
moods of utterance. All pauses, however, are in 
part deliberative or annunciatory. 

Rhetorical or Elliptic Pauses. — These, like 
all other pauses, afford space for the more pos- 
itive elements of expression to accomplish their 
work. Yet the elements of inflection, force, 
and quality are both assisted and modified 
by these suggestive pauses. Hence the pause 
itself becomes an important element in expression. 



DELIBERATION. 3 1 

It often brings to notice an inflection, stress, or 
quality, which would otherwise be unobserved, or 
heard as part of the melody of the sentence. It 
thus suggests amplification of the thought. While 
grammatical pauses merely group together for 
economy of reception the words that are actually 
given, the rhetorical pause, with its accompanying 
significant intonation, suggests some thought 
additional to that contained in the words. Rhet- 
orical pauses imply : 

i. Deliberative matter — explanatory, prepara- 
tory, propositional, transitions, or anything similar 
to that uttered and such as would naturally come 
to mind in connection with what is spoken. This 
deliberative effect is secured merely by lengthening 
the pause or suspending the voice. 

2. Discriminative Matter — especially compared 
or contrasted. The pause in this case gives time 
for the full expression of that which is implied by 
the accompanying inflection. It amplifies such 
inflection. 

3. Energetic Matter — words implied which 
strengthen or intensify the thought. The force or 
stress in the utterance contains the essence of such 
energetic matter, but the pause is often required 
to give the energy time to enforce itself.* 

4. Emotional Matter — the attendant feeling, 
which might express itself in interjections or par- 
enthetical sentences is implied by quality of tone 
assisted by pause, to allow that quality to have its 
full effect. 



32 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Remarks. — i. Rhetorical pause may coincide with grammatical. 

2. Speaker or reader should be able to paraphrase the pause ; 
that is, supply in words the implied additional thought. 

3. These pauses are dictated by the principle of "Economy." 
They relieve the speaker and invite the co-operation of the listener. 

4. The amplification effected by these pauses, while of the most 
subtile kind, is essential to complete expression. 

N. B. Find or make examples of rhetorical pause. 

Prosodial Pause. — First. Those occurring 
between feet. These are, for the most part, sus- 
pensions of the voice, a slight linge?'ing on the last 
syllable of the poetic foot. The prosodial pause 
does not always involve extra quantity (as see in 
next lesson), nor a stop, as in case of grammat- 
ical or rhetorical pauses. It is the yielding and 
diminishing of the tone making a musical " Shad- 
ing," and it occasions an expense of time like a 
pause. This delay or lingering is vital to the 
measure, especially in slower movements, as : 

" O the long and dreary winter, 
O the cold and cruel winter." 

Second. The caesural pause. — This occurs 
at or near the middle of the line, between words 
and between the syllables of a poetic foot. It is 
most marked in long verses, in which it seems to 
be required both for relief to the voice and to 
give symmetry and balance to the line. The 
caesural palise usually coincides with one that is 
grammatical or rhetorical, as : 

Though the mills of God grind slowly, || yet they grind 
exceeding small, 

Though with patience He stands waiting, || with exact- 
ness grinds He all. 



DELIBERATION. 33 

Third. The verse pause, that occurring at the 
end of the line. — This is always to be observed if 
the poetic form of the composition is to be 
expressed. The neglect of this makes prose read- 
ing, destroying the music, and weakening the 
thought. Example, 

"And the stately ships go on 
To their haven under the hill." 

Caution. — It is not needful to mark falling slide at verse 
pauses, nor to make an abrupt break. The verse can be marked 
by a slight prolongation or suspension of voice, as well as by an 
actual stop. 

Remarks. — i. The musical element is the first thing in poetry. 
Otherwise the thought would have been expressed in prose. 2. 
The truly poetical reading of verse never necessarily interferes 
with intellectual rendering of the thought. The elements of inflec- 
tion, stress and quality have their full force, as in prose. And 
pauses are, for the most part, arranged for by the very structure 
of the poetry. 

Oratorical or Melodic Pauses. — These are 
semi-poetic. The same or similar elements of 
imagination, emotion, dignity, and nobility demand 
similar regularity of movement in poetic prose, as 
in poetry itself. The same general grouping of syl- 
lables into twos or threes will be observed, though, 
of course, with less regularity and not arranged in 
groups of a certain number of feet each. This 
would make blank verse. 

Example. — " I appeal to you by the graves in which our com- 
mon ancestors repose in many an ancient village 

church yard, where daisies grow on the turf-covered graves, and 
venerable yew trees cast over them their solemn shade." — Hall. 

4 



34 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

"Loud shouts of rejoicing shall then be heard .... when the 
triumphs of a great enterprise usher in the day of the triumphs 
of the cross of Christ." — Gough. 

" A mighty cry of joy went forth through all the sky." — 
Dickens. 

Remarks. — i. Observance of this melodic element in reading 
will favorably react on diction. 2. Exaggerated dignity is never 
to be sought by this means. 3. " Sing-song," or scanning is not 
to prevail. 4. Avoid too much prolongation and swell. 5. 
Evenness and Dignity form the essence of this property. 

N. B. Give examples of Prosodial and Melodic 
Pauses. 






CHAPTER III. 

THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 

One's manner of uttering the words ought to 
reveal his purpose in the use of them. That pur- 
pose, in the case of intelligent utterance, is one 
which the speaker can distinctly recognize in his 
consciousness, and which he ought to be able to 
justify and defend. It need not be accidental ; it 
must not be unreasonable or indefensible. Now 
the most economical way of testing the use of 
words, especially as to the intonation they shall 
receive, is for the speaker to state to his own 
mind explicitly and definitely the purpose for 
which he speaks. This principle, applied broadly, 
as to the motive or end in a sermon, or platform 
address as a whole, would be quite obvious ; it is 
not quite so clear when applied to the shorter 
portions of speech. In regard to these it is 
assumed that there must be an unconscious 
expression. It is acknowledged scholarship to 
choose words definitely and purposely, even 
though such painstaking choice should retard, for 
the time, the spontaneous " flow " which should 
characterize good writing. 

Is it any less disciplinary or any less useful to 
choose the manner of uttering words ? Not only 
is it true that " Manner is matter; " it is also true 
that very often manner is much more important 



$6 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

than matter; i. e., it makes much more difference, 
often, how you speak than what you speak. 

To choose means of expression as to movement, 
inflection, etc., by arbitrary standards or by imita- 
tion, would surely result in stiffness, shallowness, 
and affectation in delivery. The utterance always 
must be the reader's or speaker's own measurement 
of the thought. To secure this individual, inde- 
pendent interpretation ; and to ensure a fresh 
realization, at the moment, of the significance and 
bearings of what one is saying — this is to prepare 
for genuine expression. And for this nothing is 
a greater help than an expressional paraphrase. 

In connection with each of the moods of utter- 
ance we shall apply this principle of paraphrase. 

The deliberative element in expression may 
often be more clearly seen by changing the phra- 
seology. Two purposes may dictate such changes 
in the words: either to show more fully the 
speaker's attitude and relation toward the thing 
said or toward the person addressed ; or, to make 
clearer, by comment, addition, or alteration, the 
thought contained in the words uttered, consid- 
ered apart from the personality of the speaker. 
The first of these two purposes will give rise to 
what we may call subjective paraphrases ; the 
second will occasion those that are objective. In 
either case the reader may gain a more vivid and 
complete impression, as a condition favoring full 
expression. 



the deliberative paraphrase. 37 

Subjective Paraphrases. 

Under this head we may have three distinct 
types, answering, severally, to the three varieties 
of deliberative matter and deliberative emphasis. 

The same words might at one time be used in- 
troductorily, again propositionally, or even tran- 
sitionally. 

The paraphrase would be such comment, ex- 
planation, or accompaniment as would reveal the 
intent of the speaker. Thus, " Some subjects are 
always timely," might be used merely to prepare 
for something to come, or might be given with 
the weight and fullness of a proposition upon 
which the mind is to dwell for a moment, or again 
might be a mere connective thought between two 
subjects. 

Suppose, first, that the above sentence is used 
introductorily. The introductory purpose might 
be formulated to the speaker's own thought some- 
what as follows. "Some subjects, amid the many 
to which our attention is from time to time invited, 
are such in their nature, that they are never out 
of place ; and the one to which I invite you now is 
one of these." 

Or, again, the same sentence, used proposition- 
ally, might contain a purpose, which could be 
roughly expressed as follows. "There are subjects 
trivial and subjects grave ; subjects timely and 
untimely; the one before us now, is worthy our 
deepest pondering and our most candid reception." 



38 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Or again, suppose the same sentence to be used 
transitionally. The connecting purpose might be 
expressed thus: " Now, in passing from that which 
may not be in keeping with the circumstances, we 
will consider a topic which is never out of place." 

It is obvious that the introductory paraphrase, 
recognized and distinctly stated to the mind of the 
speaker, will fit him to speak words with such 
rate and intonation as are naturally calculated to 
invite the attention to something to be presented ; 
that the more serious propositional importance 
expressed in such paraphrase will suggest to the 
speaker a more measured and weighty utterance ; 
also that the transitional purpose will reveal itself 
in quicker motion at first, merging into the slower 
as the new topic is approached. 

Examples. — Find sentences which will admit 
these three interpretations, according to different 
circumstances. Make in turn introductory, propo- 
sitional and transitional paraphrases. Keeping 
the paraphrase in mind, read the sentence or pas- 
sage with the introductory, propositional, or tran- 
sitional sense suggested by paraphrase. Thinking 
of a fuller or altered phraseology will assist in 
apportioning the right movement, pauses, and 
intonation upon the words that are spoken. 

Objective Paraphrases. 

These regard the thought more intrinsically, 
and less with reference to the attitude of the 
speaker. They also deal with the thought more in 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 39 

the details of its expression and not so much in 
reference to its uses as a whole. Objective para- 
phrasing has to do with the number of words 
employed, or consciously thought of; expanding 
the phraseology to gain a fuller impression, or 
contracting it as an aid to grasping the central 
thought more strongly ; or filling in elliptical mat- 
ter, when it is needed to bring out more fully the 
suggestiveness of an implied thought. It may 
regard, also, the form of expression, changing 
poetic to prosaic form as a corrective and clarifier 
of the thought, or reducing to simple diction an 
ornate or very elevated style, for the purpose of 
revealing the logical framework and the connec- 
tion of parts in passages that are likely to conceal 
these under the abundance or rhythmic flow of 
the language. 

This changing of the phraseology might seem 
unwarranted as being a gratuitous emendation of 
the text; it may be thought to belong to literary 
criticism rather than to vocal expression. The 
reply is, this device only suggests a rational meth- 
od of doing that which every intelligent reader or 
speaker is constantly doing, and must continually 
do ; i. e., make a running commentary upon the 
passage, while delivering it. The expressional 
paraphrase brings out to consciousness, for a time, 
those thought-processes which unconsciously as- 
sert themselves in most cases of vivid, fresh, sug- 
gestive vocal interpretation. This process of 
mentally restating the thought before expressing 



40 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

it, will largely eliminate from the delivery the 
elements of cant and lifelessness. A passage, or a 
form of words, long familiar to one, ceases to have 
for him the freshness of lately discovered or newly 
stated truth ; and the habit of freely paraphrasing 
will almost necessitate that freshness and vividness 
of impression, which is indispensable to a genuine 
delivery. This study in paraphrasing, then, 
belongs directly and pre-eminently to that part of 
elocutionary training which has to do with the 
mental preparation for speech: it is a natural ele- 
ment in the study of rhetorical delivery. 

The Expansive Paraphrase. — According to 
the laws of rhetorical amplification, a brief, com- 
pact expression may be made to seem more real 
by dwelling upon it for a moment. But if, during 
this moment of lingering, the mind of the reader 
or speaker merely stops and waits, the result will 
be either an empty delay in the thought, or a tire- 
some drawling. A manufactured slowness is far 
from being a suggestive deliberateness. There is 
a world-wide difference between the two : the one 
indicates vacuity, the other fulness; the one is 
mechanical, the other expressive. In order to 
make a slow delivery truly amplify the thought, 
the speaker must actually have in his own thoughts 
those considerations, added facts, reflections, allu- 
sions, etc., which he wishes to hint to his hearers. 
The listener may not, indeed, receive precisely the 
same accompany ing thoughts that the speaker has 
in mind, but " like will beget like." Either the 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 41 

same thoughts, or others as good, in the same line, 
will be suggested to the sympathetic listener; pro- 
vided a sensitive and trained instinct — logical, 
imaginative, and emotional — is allowed to play 
upon a flexible and sensitive voice. 

We find in literature many cases of such expan- 
sible expressions. Often the amplification is done 
for us, on the page ; sometimes only suggested. 
" To be, or not to be," in the marvelous soliloquy 
of Hamlet is, thus, expanded through the thirty 
lines that follow. 

To be, or not to be : that is the question : 

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, 

And by opposing end them ? To die : to sleep ; 

No more ; and by a sleep to say we end 

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks 

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation 

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep ; 

To sleep : perchance to dream : ay, there's the rub ; 

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come 

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 

Must give us pause : there's the respect 

That makes calamity of so long life ; 

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 

The insolence of office, and the spurns 

That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 

When he himself might his quietus make 

With a bare bodkin ? who would fardels bear, 

To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 

But that the dread of something after death, 

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn 



42 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

No traveller returns, puzzles the will, 

And makes us rather bear those ills we have 

Than fly to others that we know not of ? 

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; 

And thus the native hue of resolution 

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, 

And enterprises of great pitch and moment 

With this regard their currents turn awry, 

And lose the name of action. 

In a similar way, separate elements in the gen- 
eral thought are expanded at length ; as, for 
example, the simple infinitive " to die," the infolded 
idea of which is unwrapped by twenty lines of 
solid matter. In the mouth of a Booth the reflec- 
tion and feeling of the twenty lines is felt to be 
present in the two little words. If this were not 
the case, the one hundred and thirty words 
required to unfold the idea, would be a digression 
and an impertinence. 

Frequently, also, conclusive words, like those 
of Polonius, " Farewell ; my blessing season 
this in thee!" virtually incorporate into them- 
selves all the thought and emotion of a long par- 
agraph. 

And these few precepts in thy memory 

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, 

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 

Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware 

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 43 

Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. 

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice : 

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 

But not express'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; 

For the apparel oft proclaims the man, 

And they in France of the best rank and station 

Are of a most select and generous chief in that. 

Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; 

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 

This above all : to thine ownself be true, 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 

Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

Farewell : my blessing season this in thee ! 

Now the act of mentally, silently, recalling all 
these implied and accompanying thoughts, and so 
expanding the compact expression, enables one to 
put into the brief uttered words that significance 
which logically and rightfully belongs to them, 
without an affected or mechanical delivery. The 
slowness becomes truly suggestive, and econom- 
ical. 

See examples of this in Psalm cxxxix. Here we 
have fine cases both of the anticipative, and of the 
conclusive or retrospective, expansion. The first 
verse of this psalm evidently implies the thoughts 
which are expanded in the following five verses. 

1 " O Lord thou hast searched me, and known me. 

2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou un- 
derstandest my thought afar off. 

3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art 
acquainted with all my ways. 



44 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou 
knowest it altogether. 

5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand 
upon me. 

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot 
attain unto it. 

Now observe the retrospective expansion in the 
last two verses of this Psalm. 

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart : try me, and know 
my thoughts : 

24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in 
the way everlasting. 

During the utterance of these closing- words, 
the intelligent, genuine reader must have in his 
mind some such reflective expansion of the 
thought as this: Thou Omniscient, Omnipresent 
One, who takest account of my every act, and 
notest every purpose and imagination of this heart 
— thy marvelous creation, — thou knowest that, 
while I sincerely hate all evil ways, I may myself 
be false and erring. Oh ! seek out the lurking sin 
within me, bring it plainly before me, let me for- 
sake it, and go with thee in the ways of safety, 
peace, success, forevermore. 

Even to speak such words, in amplification of 
this concluding thought, would hardly be imper- 
tinent; since the logic and feeling of the whole 
Psalm plainly imply these thoughts: silently to 
couple, in one's own mind, these premises with 
this conclusion, must, surely, be a safe and sensible 
way to put into this closing petition just what the 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 45 

writer meant it should contain. The words, by 
themselves, might suggest other interpretations, 
which would call for different expression in the 
voice. The right and full significance can be 
realized only by accompanying the utterance with 
those thoughts which lead to it and give it shape. 

This is called an expansive paraphrase because 
it really does expand or unfold more fully the 
meaning which is condensed into the words. Its 
vocal symbol will consist in a slow rate, with pauses 
well marked, but not abrupt ; and full quantity, 
which will be saved from becoming mere prolon- 
gation of sound, by the subtile, sympathetic, sug- 
gestive quality imparted by the reflections and 
comments that momentarily fill the mind. 

This expansive paraphrase is of frequent use in 
oratory and in poetry. Take, for example, these 
sentences from Lincoln's address at Gettysburg : 

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth 
upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedi- 
cated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we 
are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation — or 
any nation, so conceived and so dedicated — can long endure. 
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to 
dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here 
gave their lives that that nation might live. 

Now note by suggestive catch-words the 
implied thoughts which might be interlined, ex- 
panding these compact expressions. Think of all 
the history suggested in the first sentence ; of the 
experience of struggle intimated in the second 
sentence ; of the solemn and tender interest, the 



46 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

patriotic resolution, the noble aspirations implied 
in the last sentence. It is obvious that a whole 
chapter, nay, many volumes, might be composed 
in amplification of these terse, suggestive sen- 
tences. One cannot, of course, consciously thinK 
of all that might be suggested ; yet the thought of 
something more than the mere words before the 
reader, will make those words, when spoken, full 
of a significance which will immeasureably assist 
in their expressive utterance. ilfter actually 
writing out, in abbreviated form, such intimations 
of expansion or amplification, now read again the 
words as spoken by Lincoln, mentally accompany- 
ing your utterance by your own expansive para- 
phrase. 

Take these two lines from Longfellow's 
" Hiawatha": 

O The long and dreary Winter ! 
O The cold and cruel Winter ! 

It requires no great stretch of imagination to 
expand, in this example, the interjection, the 
adjective, and the one repeated substantive. Make 
such expansion ; then, keeping this in mind, pack 
all of the significance you thus gain into the words 
as you read them aloud. 

It is obvious that in such examples as the last 
two the element of quantity will be indispensable 
to the full utterance. 

The Condensative Paraphrase. — In this the 
purpose is the opposite to that of the expansive 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 47 

paraphrase. The design here is to abridge the 
expression for the purpose of grasping its salient 
points and preventing the attention from being 
scattered by the great number of words, or of sub- 
ordinate clauses, often necessary to the full writ- 
ing of the thought. The condensing may be done, 
sometimes, by sifting out a few of the words em- 
ployed by the author — those words which contain 
the framework of the thought ; again, it may be 
done by substituting some briefer expression for 
the longer one. Short and simple examples of 
this would be such cases as the following, John ix. 
14 : " Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus 
made the clay and opened his eyes." Here the 
words "made the clay, and opened his eyes" 
are simply equivalent to "did this"; the thing 
done being explicitly stated before. So in the 
twenty-fourth verse of the same chapter: "So 
they called the second time the man that was 
blind and said unto him, ' Give glory to God, we 
know that this man is a sinner.' " The words, " the 
man that was blind," are simply equivalent to 
"him." 

In the second chapter of Romans, verses 2-16 
will be more intelligently read by first condensing 
the whole thought into a brief sentence or two ; as 
thus: 

2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to 
truth against them which commit such things. 

3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do 
such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judg- 
ment of God? 



48 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance 
and longsuffering ; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth 
thee to repentance ? 

5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up 
unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the 
righteous judgment of God ; 

6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds : 

7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for 
glory and honour and immortality, eternal life : 

8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the 
truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 

9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile : 

io But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh 
good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile : 
ii For there is no respect of persons with God. 

12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish 
without law : and as many as have sinned in the law shall be 
judged by the law ; 

13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the 
doers of the law shall be justified. 

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by 
nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, 
are a law unto themselves : 

15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, 
their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean- 
while accusing or else excusing one another ;) 

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by 
Jesus Christ according to my gospel. 

Canst thou defy the just, impartial God, who 
will at last award to every man his true deserts ? 

Now it is by no means meant that this conden- 
sative paraphrasing should antagonize the idea of 
the expansive ; the two are complemental parts of 
the same process. By as much as the brief, con- 
densed expression enables one better to grasp the 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 49 

thought as a whole, by so much is he the better 
prepared to expand without losing the unity of 
the thought. 

Take this passage from Julius Caesar: 

I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 
As well as I do know your outward favour. 
Well, honour is the subject of my story. 
I cannot tell what you and other men 
Think of this life ; but, for my single self, 
I had as lief not be as live to be 
In awe of such a thing as I myself. 
I was born free as Caesar ; so were you : 
We both have fed as well ; and we can both 
Endure the winter's cold as well as he : 
For once, upon a raw and gusty day, 
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, 
Caesar said to me, " Darest thou, Cassius, now 
Leap in with me into this angry flood, 
And swim to yonder point ? " Upon the word, 
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, 
And bade him follow : so indeed he did. 
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it 
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside 
And stemming it with hearts of controversy : 
But, ere we could arrive the point proposed, 
Caesar cried, " Help me, Cassius, or I sink ! " 
I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor, 
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder 
The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber 
Did I the tired Caesar : and this man 
Is now become a god ; and Cassius is 
A wretched creature, and must bend his body, 
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. 
He had a fever when he was in Spain ; 
And when the fit was on him I did mark 
How he did shake : 'tis true, this god did shake : 
His coward lips did from their color fly ; 
5 



50 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world, 

Did lose his lustre. I did hear him groan : 

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans 

Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, 

Alas, it cried, " Give me some drink, Titinius," 

As a sick girl. — Ye gods, it doth amaze me, 

A man of such a feeble temper should 

So get the start of the majestic world, 

And bear the palm alone." 

The speech as a whole may be better under- 
stood by first condensing its single thought into 
some single sentence. This will leave the mind at 
liberty to notice every suggested idea in the full 
mental amplification without losing sight of the 
central purpose for which Cassius speaks. The 
essence of the whole might be thus expressed : Ts 
it not absurd that so weak a man as Caesar should 
lord it over you and me ? 

The Elliptical or Parenthetical Para- 
phrase. — This differs from the expansive in that 
it supplies suggested and related matter connected 
with the text, rather than unfolds ideas plainly 
enwrapped in it. It verges more upon the mood 
of discrimination. Its vocal expression will em- 
ploy the rhetorical pause rather than grammatical 
pause and quantity. With the pause there will 
also be some suggestive inflection, or intonation. 
This will be plainer after the study of discrimina- 
tion ; but must be somewhat anticipated here. 

Take this example from Blaine's Eulogy of Gar- 
field : " Great in life, he was surpassingly great in 
death." After " life," we might have the paren- 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 5 I 

thesis, "as everyone knows that he was!" or, "how 
great he was! " Also, after "great" we may have 
this parenthesis supplied, "in that severer test." 
Take also these sentences : 

" Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned and 
dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, 
but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that 
was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and 
calm courage, he looked into his open grave." 

From the same speech : 

"Gently, silently, the love of a great nation bore the pale suf- 
ferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God 
should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of 
its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to 
the cooling breeze he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's 
changing wonders ; on its fair sails, whitening in the morning 
light ; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die 
beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening arching 
low to the horizon ; on the serene and shining pathway of the 
stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning 
which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe 
that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves 
breaking on a further shore, and felt already upon his wasted 
brow the breath of the eternal morning." 

Be patient till the last. 
Romans, countrymen, and lovers ! hear me for my cause ; and be 
silent, that you may hear : believe me for mine honour ; and have 
respect to mine honour, that you may believe : censure me in 
your wisdom ; and awake your senses, that you may the better 
judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of 
Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less 
than his. If, then, that friend demand why Brutus rose against 
Caesar, this is my answer, — Not that I loved Caesar less, but 
that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living, 
and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freemen ? 
As Caesar loved me, I weep for him ; as he was fortunate, I 



52 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

rejoice at it ; as he was valiant, I honour him : but as he was 
ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love ; joy for his 
fortune ; honour for his valour , and death for his ambition. 
Who is here so base that would be a bondman ? If any, speak ; 
for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be 
a Roman ? If any, speak ; for him have I offended. Who is here 
so vile that will not love his country ? If any, speak ; for him 
have I offended. I pause for a reply. 

In these passages point out the words, if any, 
that are essentially parenthetical, and might be 
implied by the intonation and by rhetorical pause. 
Also specify other thoughts plainly suggested ; 
indicate where they might be interpolated ; actu- 
ally write them in ; then read the words as given, 
in the light of your paraphrase. 

Abundant examples for elliptical paraphrasing 
may be found in the Gospels and Epistles, and in 
the Psalms ; in almost any of the sententious pas- 
sages of Shakespeare, and in poetry generally. 

The Prosaic Paraphrase. — In this the pur- 
pose is to reduce poetry to prose as nearly equiv- 
alent in meaning as possible. It serves to correct 
the cantish, sing-song style, so prevalent in the 
reading of poetry ; and, deeper than this, to reviv- 
ify the impression, which the poetic form, especi- 
ally in familiar selections, is likely somewhat to 
dull. 

The student need not be disturbed by the fact 
that his paraphrase will be intrinsically inferior to 
the poetry. The paraphrase is made simply as a 
means of fuller and more appreciative vocal ren- 
dering of the poet's thought; not as a substitute for 



i 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 53 

that thought. This end is secured by compelling 
one's mind to analyze the thought, and so to receive 
a fresher and more vivid impression. 

It may seem an impertinence to suggest any 
comment upon such a masterpiece as " The Bugle 
Song" by Tennyson. Nevertheless, it is a help to 
the reader himself to amplify somewhat the scene 
as given in the first stanza ; to translate into more 
tangible, even if weaker, forms the oft-repeated 
phrases, which, even because of their lofty and 
refined expression, are likely to escape the grasp 
of the ordinary imagination ; and to interpret to 
himself, by fuller expansion, the beautiful contrast 
between symbols and the thing symbolized, which 
closes this wonderful song of love. 

To assume to offer as an equivalent any para- 
phrase one might make, would of course be an 
affront, not only to the author, but, as well, to 
every appreciative reader ; to prepare ones own 
mind more fully to express Tennyson's words, by 
thus first bringing them down to the reader's own 
level, is quite another thing. 

The splendor falls on castle walls 

And snowy summits old in story ; 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 
Oh, hark ! Oh, hear ! how thin and clear, 
And thinner, clearer, farther going ! 
Oh, sweet and far, from cliff and scar, 

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing ! 
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying : 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 



54 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Oh, love, they die in yon rich sky, 

They faint on hill or field or river ; 
Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 
And grow forever and forever. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. 

The mellow, brilliant, light now glorifies the turrets and em- 
brasures of yon ancient fortress, and tints the historic peaks of 
the hoary mountains towering above us. The westering sun 
sends slanting rays, which shimmer on the water ; and the bold 
cascade, as it plunges downward, throws out its silvery, rippling 
sheet, resplendent in the sunshine. And while we gaze, hark to 
that floating strain of melody ! Oh ! let the bugle tones awake 
the echoes from hill and valley ! Listen ! how the sounds grow 
fainter, fainter, but still musical, and lingeringly sweet ! Hark 
again ! how thrillingly resonant, and yet how airy and dreamlike, 
as it seems to leave us, throwing back its soft " good-bye " ! How 
transporting come those bewitching melodies, refined from all the 
noises of the earth below, and, like the airy peaks that buoyantly 
re-echo them, upraising fancy to ideal heights, where spirit dwells, 
unmixed with baser matter ! Let these sprite-voices once again 
remind us of that higher spirit-life whose peaks of pure affection 
reach, as these hill-tops do, far into heaven. 

My love, these mellow sounds, and those rich colors in our sky 
stay but a moment, we turn our ear to catch the last reverberation, 
and it sounds no more ; we search the purpling sky for those 
bright tints we saw but now — they gleam no longer. Even these 
rarest and most perfect of physical emblems fade and fail. Not 
like them is our love. It only swells the fuller, as chord awakens 
answering chord in our responsive souls. There is no tendency 
in love-tones to grow feeble, nor in love-lighted skies to pale and 
darken. The song of love is but enhanced with each reverbera- 
tion, and so its volume and its sweetness shall increase to all 
eternity. 

Then let the glad-voiced horn once more sound forth the notes 
that weakly typify our spirits' quivering, trembling, yet exultant 
joy ; and as its tones, reflected, die away, let our souls repeat, yet 
once again, that truer, spiritual song, whose echoes never cease. 



THE DELIBERATIVE PARAPHRASE. 55 

The following poetic passages are suggested as 
especially helpful in this work : The Burial of Mo- 
ses, by Mrs. Alexander ; The Psalm of Life, by 
Longfellow ; Moral Warfare, Song of the Free, 
My Soul and I, The Prisoner for Debt, by Whit- 
tier ; passages from the Present Crisis, and the 
Vision of Sir Launfal, by Lowell ; and The Water- 
fowl, The West Wind, Autumn Woods, March, 
Waiting by the Gate, Death of the Flowers, The 
Hurricane, and the Hymn of the Sea, by Bryant. 

Examples. — Find suitable passages in litera- 
ture to illustrate all the above kinds of paraphrases. 

First. Actually write such paraphrases, then 
learn to think them rapidly. Always remember 
that the purpose throughout this work is to 
reformulate and restate the matter given, and to 
suggest accompanying thoughts, plainly implied, 
as a means of gaining a fresher, deeper impression 
of the thing to be said. This constitutes the men- 
tal part of Expressional Technique ; and itself 
does much both to prepare for, and to vitalize, the 
physical part of the technique. 

Study minutely the significance of pauses and 
of groupings, as suggesting the thought that is 
elaborated. Practice writing the pauses by dots, 
dashes, and lines, as indicated in the previous 
chapter. Listen to examples in conversation and 
in public speaking ; note how thoughts may be 
expanded, condensed, and, when elliptical, filled 
out. Observe, in connection with this, the group- 
ing of elements and the pauses employed in expres- 
sive speech. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DISCRIMINATION. 

Discrimination, as a mood of utterance, is, sub- 
jectively, the speaker's own discernment, and his 
purpose to cause the listener to discern, the 
relations of facts or ideas presented ; — object- 
ively, it is that propertv in the utterance which 
brings before the intelligence facts or scenes, not 
as simple and unrelated items, but in relations, 
expressed or implied. These are, principally, 
completeness or incompleteness of thought ; asser- 
tion and assumption ; comparison and contrast. 

The relations are discerned by careful study of 
the purposes in the utterance, and by minute meas- 
urements and comparisons among subordinate 
ideas. The manifestation of these relations in the 
rendering is necessary to a clear presentation of 
the thought. After the properties of movement 
and grouping, provided for under Deliberation, 
the element of Discrimination is the most vital to 
the logical unfolding of ideas. 

Discrimination is expressed chiefly by inflec- 
tion. This is a variation in pitch, occurring upon 
single words, and recognized as distinctive slides, 
or as circumflexes. Inflection is thus distinguished 
from melody, which belongs to sentences and par- 
agraphs, and also from the slight vanishing slide 
of " concrete tone," which pervades all speech. 






DISCRIMINATION. 57 

Inflection is an intentional variation of tone de- 
signed to call particular attention to the relation 
of the element upon which it occurs. It has, 
indeed, an intimate relation with melody and has 
very much to do with the variety of intonation so 
essential to agreeable speech ; but this will not be 
studied particularly here, as we are now to dis- 
cuss inflection rather as indicating the logical rela- 
tions above specified. 

i. Completeness. — This includes, (a) Finality, 
or the end of the thought. This is not always to 
be discerned by the punctuation. It often hap- 
pens that a sentence marked by a period is log- 
ically incomplete, while a phrase set off by a 
comma, or even not punctuated at all, may repre- 
sent a species of completeness. Thus : 

Take the participle ; we have in this a two-fold office. 

It is evident that in this case the first sentence is 
incomplete, logically and rhetorically, though 
complete grammatically. The relation of the first 
proposition is the same as that of the participial 
clause ; and it might read, — " Looking at the par- 
ticiple, we discover that it has a two-fold use." It 
would not be, therefore, a case of Finality, as 
would be the concluding sentences in any ordinary 
paragraph. 

(b) Momentary Completeness. — This applies to 
any clause, phrase, or even word, which has, 
for any reason, enough separate force to consti- 
tute, at the moment, an entire thought, and call 
for a separate affirmation of the mind. This may 



58 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

arise, (i) from its logical importance, or from a 
strong assertive emphasis ; or, (2) from an elliptical 
construction, or one in which each part could 
reasonably be expanded into a complete propo- 
sition. Example of (1) would be this sentence 
from Webster: 

It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain 
from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spon- 
tantaneous, original, native force. 

Here the ideas of spontaneity, originality, native- 
ness, are each so important to the thought that 
the mind is called upon to make a separate affirm- 
ation upon each one. 

Examples of (2) are found in some of the con- 
nected clauses in this passage from Byron's Dream 
of Darkness. 

I had a dream, which was not all a dream. 

The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars 

Did wander,' darkling, in the eternal space, 

Rayless and pathless, and the icy earth 

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air ; 

Morn came, and went — and came, and brought no day, 

And men forgot their passions in the dread 

Of this their desolation ; and all hearts 

Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light : 

And they did live by watch-fires ; and the thrones, 

The palaces of crowned kings, the huts, 

The habitations of all things which dwell, 

Were burnt for beacons ; cities were consumed, 

And men were gathered round their blazing homes, 

To look once more into each other's face. 

Happy were those who dwelt within the eye 

Of the volcanoes and their mountain torch. 



DISCRIMINATION. 59 

Completeness is marked in the voice by the 
falling slide ; that indicating finality usually de- 
scends a fifth and is preceded by a more or less 
distinct cadence. The indication of momentary 
completeness is also a falling slide, but not so 
marked, and usually not prepared by any special 
cadence. This momentary completeness is exem- 
plified in most loose sentences. For example : 

They saw not one man, not one woman, not one child, not one 
four-footed beast. 

2. Incompleteness. — This includes the unfin- 
ished and the unassertive. The mind of the 
speaker is viewing the thought that is, for the 
moment, before his attention, either as obviously 
connected with something to follow, or as being 
incapable or unworthy of a full affirmative state- 
ment. Some obvious cases of incompleteness are 
the following : 

(a) Subordination, grammatical and rhetorical ; 
expressed by a slightly rising slide, usually about 
that of a musical second. , For example : 

I cannot, by the progress of the stars, give guess how near to 
day. 

It never rains but it pours ; we got more than we asked. 

This type of incompleteness covers many cases 
of mere enumeration, or of the most obvious point- 
ing forward, or opening of ideas, in which the 
thought simply leads on to something that is to 
follow. Its vocal symbol is a rising slide, but 
more slightly rising, to point the attention onward 
rather than upward ; just as the arrow-head or fin- 



6o GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

ger on a guide-board points the way. it is usually 
accompanied by a somewhat rapid, easy grouping, 
which indicates that there is nothing in the indi- 
vidual phrases or clauses to call your attention or 
delay your progress. 

(b) Anticipation, or Condition; differing from 
subordination by giving a more distinct and ani- 
mated preparation. For example : 

But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth 
to forgive sins, I say unto thee, "Arise, take up thy bed, and go 
unto thy house." 

I hold that he who humbly tries 
To find wherein his duty lies, 
And finding, does the same, and bears 
Its burdens lightly, and its cares, 
Is nobler, in his low estate, 
Than crowned king or potentate. 
If we shall find the work has been slighted, we shall appoint 
another man. 

Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, 
" Thou shalt not forswear thyself." 

Most periodic sentences emply this form of 
incompleteness, which gives them their character 
of "suspense." 

This relation of anticipation is expressed by a 
somewhat sharper rising slide than that which 
marks subordination. Anticipation usually em- 
ploys the rising Third. 

(c) Negation. This indicates either inability or 
unwillingness to affirm. It is a declining to assert, 
a waiving or conceding of that which it is not 
thought worth while to claim, or of that which is 
too evident to need proof. 



DISCRIMINATION. 6l 

I do not know that I care to do that. 

There are other methods ; I do not claim that this is the only 
one. 

I grant there is some truth in that. 
No, of course no one believes that. 

It may also express a more serious negation, yet 
implying the idea that the thing said does not 
need a positive affirmation, but is rather to be 
taken for granted. For example : 

It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven, but 
my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven. 

I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last 
day. 

It may also express the negation of triviality or 
insignificance, as: 

O, that is of no consequence ; you don't believe that. 
Yes, he spoke very well. 

By a natural paradox this rhetorical negation 
may become the strongest kind of affirmation, as : 

We know that this is our son. 

Here the parents of the blind man consider the 
fact of his relation to them as so indisputable that 
it is not worth their while to make an affirmation 
concerniug it ; so do the neighbors, who said, 
" This is he." But when his identity had been 
disputed by some of the bystanders, it then be- 
came necessary to make on affirmation, and so the 
man himself declares, with falling slide, " I am he." 
— John ix. 9, 20. 

The vocal symbol of this negative relation is a 



62 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

rising slide, of about a fourth ; the more serious 
negation is somewhat prolonged, and the more 
trivial is given with a quicker, lighter toss. The 
interval is in either case essentially the same. 

(d) Doubt. This includes hesitation, uncertainty, 
any degree of bewilderment or confusion ; and 
represents the mind as attempting to balance or 
decide between ideas. For example : 

I may find it necessary. — 

You do not really think it possible. — 

I believe I mailed that letter — on Saturday. — 

If thou consider rightly of the matter — Caesar hath had great 
wrong. — 

It must be by his death. — 

Crown him? — that ; — and then I grant we put the sting in him 
that, at his will, he may do danger with. 

Hamlet. What ? looked he — frowningly ? — 

Horatio. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 

Ham . Pale — or red ? — 

Hor. Nay, very pale. 

Ham. He — fixed his eyes — upon you ? — 

Hor. Most constantly. 

Ham. I would I had been there. — 

Hor. It would have much amazed you. 

Ham. Very like ; very like ; — stayed it long? — 

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. 

Mar, 

Ber. 

Hor. Not when I saw it. 

Ham. His beard — was grizzled — no ? 

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, a sable silvered. 

Ham. I will watch to-night ; perchance 't will walk again. 



' > Longer, longer. 



The vocal symbol of doubt or uncertainty is a 
suspension of voice, rather than distinct rising slide, 



DISCRIMINATION. 63 

though there may be a slight tendency upward. 
It typifies the mind held in suspense or abeyance. 

(e) Interrogation, Direct, answerable by " yes " or 
"no." 

The mind is pictured as unformed in reference 
to the main thought, either confessing or profess- 
ing ignorance. This is emptiness or incomplete- 
ness. For example : 

Is this your son ? 
Did he say no ? 

The natural symbol in this honest interrogation 
is the rising slide, almost invariably of the fifth. 
Rhetorical or figurative interrogation usually 
has the purpose of a strengthened affirmation. 
This purpose may be effected either by obviously 
asserting in tone, what is asked in words, or by 
pretending ignorance in regard to that which is 
well known. The latter expects a needless answer, 
the former only demands the attention ; the latter 
employs the rising slide, like a real question ; the 
former, the falling slide, like an ordinary assertion, 
or stronger. For example : 

Do you deny this ? 

This may convey one of three purposes. 

(1) Really to gain information. It will then be 
expressed with the simple rising slide. 

(2) Apparently to gain information, but really to 
challenge. This also will take the rising slide, but 
sharper, bolder, and prepared by more decided 
cadence, usually a descending melody leading to 



64 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

the strong rising slide. The rising slide here may 
reach even an octave. 

(3) Strongly to assert the opposite of that ex- 
pressed in the question : That is ; you do not, can- 
not deny it. This, of course, will be given with 
a positive falling slide. 

Remark. — In literary interpretation, as in conversation, it is 
often a delicate and most important task to decide whether the 
interrogative phraseology really conveys the purpose of a literal 
question, i. e., to gain information, or of the figurative, to assert or 
challenge. 

(f) Supplication. This cannot be measured al- 
ways by the words. The attitude of the speaker's 
mind must be inferred from the context and from 
a reasonable probability, based upon the study of 
the character of the person speaking, and of the 
circumstances. An ordinary request may be only 
the statement of a desire. For example : 

Please listen to my statement. 

This is not, in the elocutionary sense, suppli- 
catory. The same is true of many prayers ; they 
simply indicate the desire of the speaker, and the 
expectation of the promised answer or blessing. 

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel ; thou that leddest Joseph like 
a flock ; thou that sittest between the cherubim, shine forth. 

Words of supplication, on the other hand, ex- 
press an intense pleading, which looks upward — 
as weakness to strength ; fearfulness, terror or 
despair to protecting power ; as when Peter said, 
" Lord, save me ! " The whole trend of Psalm 



DISCRIMINATION. 65 

li., " Have mercy upon me, O God, according to 
thy lovingkindness," etc., has this pleading or sup- 
plicatory effect ; so has this passage from Psalm 
lxxvii. : 

Will the Lord cast off forever, and will he be favorable no 
more? Is his mercy clean gone, forever? Doth his promise fail 
forevermore ? 

In this the purpose is not primarily to gain in- 
formation but rather to express the intense plead- 
ing, the uplifted, beseeching attitude here intended 
by the term ''supplication." The same will often be 
heard in conversation, when the feeling of weak- 
ness appealing to strength is portrayed. For 
example : 

Do not close the door upon your child ! 
Do not leave me here alone ! 

And literature, especially the drama, contains 
many such examples : 

O, Hubert, save me from these bloody men ! 
Kneel not, gentle Portia. 
Have patience, gentle friends. 

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up to such a 
sudden flood of mutiny ! 
O, Hamlet, speak no more. 

This relation is symbolized by a rising slide, var- 
iable in extent from third to octave. It is usually, 
and almost necessarily, accompanied by a percep- 
tible swell. 

Examples. — Find or make examples of all the 
above varieties of incompleteness, and of moment- 
ary completeness. 



66 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

3. Assertion. — This is, subjectively, the pur- 
pose to point out that which is new, unknown, un- 
familiar, or specially important in the connection ; 
or that which, for any reason, would be likely to 
escape the attention of the hearer. Objectively, 
it is such marking of the emphatic words as will 
secure this object. Its symbol is the falling slide, 
but, unlike the falling slide of completeness, the 
assertive slide is usually not accompanied by a 
distinct pause. It is continuative ; that is, the 
voice moves downward and onward at the same 
time. It is the most convenient way of marking 
that which is usually called the emphatic word 
of a sentence. 

I gave him those keys. 
I gave him those keys. 
I gave him those keys. 
I gave him those keys. 
I gave him those keys. 

Moses gave you not that bread from heaven ; it was not Moses 
that gave you that bread from heaven. 

This is the first plan I have to submit. 

4. Assumption. — This is, subjectively, the 
taking for granted of that which may be supposed 
to be already in the mind of the listener, either 
from having been previously mentioned or strong- 
ly implied, or because it is a matter of common 
information. Objectively, assumption consists, 
usually, in the absence of distinct inflection ; the 
voice moving easily forward, often with a tendency 
to the rising slide, like that of subordination, but 
always governed by the general trend of the mel- 






DISCRIMINATION. 6j 

ody in the sentence. This light and unemphatic 
motion of the voice simply says, " What I am 
saying now is perfectly familiar to you, just look 
forward and see what I am going to point out." 
For example : 

I know that virtue to be in you Brutus. 

The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks, 
They all are fire and every one doth shine ; 
But there's but one in all doth hold his place : 
So in the world ; 'tis furnished well with men, 
And men are flesh and blood and apprehensive ; 
Yet in the number I do know but one 
That unassailable holds on his rank, 
Unshaked of motion. 

And Brutus is an honorable man. 

This, as first said, is simply assumed, as that 
which every one knows, of course ; later, it has a 
distinctively assertive, ironical significance. 

Remark. — As to what may be assumed and what may be as- 
serted, the speaker must always consult the intelligence of his 
audience, the circumstances of the speech, and especially the par- 
ticular connection and bearing of the sentence in question. Too 
much assumption renders the delivery weak and inadequate, be- 
cause too commonplace ; too much assertion is an insult, as it 
underestimates the intelligence of the audience. 

5. Complex Relations. — Completeness, in- 
completeness, assumption, and assertion are usu- 
ally simple in their nature. We have also many 
cases of composite or combined relations, express- 
ing in the same word or phrase different simulta- 
neous notions. Such complex relations often need 
some special symbol in the intonation ; and for 
this use the circumflexes are naturally adapted. 



68 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

The double motion of the voice upon a single 
sound or group of sounds is an instinctive type of 
the double purpose in the speaking mind. The 
following alliterated rule carries more than a mne- 
monic significance : 

Slides are simple, circumflexes are complex. 

The double sense suggested by a circumflex is 
most apparent in the case of irony. 

He is a nice man. 

So in many a joke ; as, when a highway is torn 
up for repairs, one says : 

You call this improving the roads, do you ? 

Or in a pun : 

Now is it Rome indeed, and Room enough, when there is in it 
but one only man. 

Also in a serious play upon words, as : 

Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, 
Thou makest thy knife keen. 

Seems Madam ! Nay, it is. I know not seems. 

We recognize three distinct types, or varieties, 
of this composite relation. 

(a) Comparison or Contrast, with Completeness or 
Assertion. This supposes two elements in the 
thought and usually implies, rather than states, 
the holding of the two before the attention at the 
same moment. Its vocal symbol is the falling cir- 
cumflex [ A ] • 

Comparison usually takes the interval of about 
a third and return ; Contrast about a fifth. Com- 



DISCRIMINATION. 69 

parison more easily carries over the thought from 
one thing to another, while contrast sets one thing 
sharply up against the other. For example, Com- 
parison : 

John, too, has come. 

/. e., John came, as well as Charlie. Contrast: 

It is open, I say. 

That is, it is open instead of closed. 

When both members of the antithesis or of the 
comparison are separately and fully expressed, 
and when the parts stand close together, they 
usually take contrasted slides instead of condensed 
or circumflex, inflection; as: 

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him : 

Whereas, " I come not here to talk," would re- 
quire a circumflex upon talk, since the other 
member of the antithesis is only implied. 

This is not the only reason. 

Here the other reasons that might be named are 
suppressed, and the word " only " must imply the 
contrast. It will need the circumflex. 

(b) Comparison or Contrast with some form of 
Incompleteness. This is rendered still more com- 
plex by the addition of an element of subordina- 
tion, negation, interrogation, or some other type 
of incompleteness. Its symbol is the wave [ ~]. 

Could I but kn5w this now ! 

Here the contrast between knowing and only 



/O GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

surmising, is joined with anticipation, doubt, or 
uncertainty. 

S5m$ do. 

Here the contrast is coupled with a negation, 
implying, many, on the contrary, do not. 

I do not like your faults. 

This implies plainly a contrast, with negation or 
concession. 

The fact of their involved double significance 
renders these forms especially useful in sarcasm, 
raillery, etc. They may, however, be legitimately 
used in wit and humor. They often express sur- 
prise, which is really a contrast between what was 
expected and what is seen. They are legitimately 
used whenever it is most economical to imply 
double relations of thought, rather than explicitly 
to state both of the combined ideas. 

(c) Affirmation with Incompleteness. This is sim- 
ilar to Assertion ; but differs from it in these two 
respects : 

(i) Assertion is more objective, designed to 
point out some element in the thought to the no- 
tice of the listener, while the Affirmation with 
Completeness is more subjective, indicating some- 
what the attitude or feeling of the speaker. 

(2) While Assertion has coupled with it a cer- 
tain incompleteness, it is only that of connected- 
ness or subordination, which is of the weakest 
kind. Affirmation with Incompleteness, on the 
other hand, joins with the stronger subjective 



DISCRIMINATION. 7 1 

attitude an interrogation, a negation, an entreaty, 
or some one of the more distinctly expressive 
types of incompleteness. It is thus essentially 
double in its significance, combining a positive 
and a negative element of thought ; typically, an 
assertion and an appeal. This double significance 
appears plainly in such expressions as : 

You won't go, 

When it means : You will not go, will you? 

You don't believe that, 

Meaning : You do not believe it ; do you ? 

This is what /shall do, 

That is, I shall do this — I don't care what you do. 
As in this case, so usually, the twofold thought 
could be made more apparent by separating the 
elements which are packed into one briefer form. 
The vocal symbol of this double relation is the 
rising circumflex [ w ]. 

The office of the inflection in the interpretation 
of such twofold expression is, most economically 
to suggest the hidden or implied element. The 
two motions of the voice united in one, naturally 
symbolize the two motives in the mind, com- 
bined in one. We must not regard the phrase- 
ology alone, but must seek to find all that is natu- 
rally implied, considering the context and the 
circumstances of the utterance. 

Examples and Directions for Study. — 

Analyze selections in all styles, noting first the gen- 



72 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

eral features of Assumption and Assertion, Com- 
pleteness and Incompleteness, Comparison and 
Contrast ; and afterward the particular reasons 
for assuming or asserting, the specific kinds of 
Completeness or Incompleteness, and the precise 
combinations of ideas constituting complex rela- 
tions. Reduce complex forms to separate, simple 
propositions, as in the examples above under, Com- 
plex Relations. 

Precision in the discernment of these thought- 
relations through their vocal symbols will, in a 
reflex way, greatly aid clearness of style in writ- 
ing, and will be indispensable to clearness in 
vocal interpretation. Train both ear and voice to 
fine discernment in the use of these variations of 
pitch. Use at first the exact intervals of the 
musical scale as indicated above. In studying 
slides follow this order : Take two musical tones, 
as do, re ; slur them; sing the slurred notes to a 
single syllable; for example, " one." Now slur 
again, but this time perceptibly diminish the 
second tone ; sing it a third time diminishing it 
still more ; continue to diminish the second tone 
until it is heard, not as a separate and distinct 
sound, but as a vanish of the first tone. You will 
now have essentially the rising slide of the second, 
which typifies subordination, pointing onward 
rather than upward. Now count numbers ; one, 
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 
rapidly ; using these degrees of pitch ; next take 
rapid clauses naturally illustrating subordination, 
and speak these upon the same interval. 






DISCRIMINATION. 73 

I have of late — but wherefore I know not — lost all my mirth, 
foregone all custom of exercises ; and indeed it goes so heavily 
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me 
a sterile promontory ; this most excellent canopy, the air, look 
you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted 
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul 
and pestilent congregation of vapours. 

But as we often see, against some storm, 
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, 
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below 
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder 
Doth rend the region ; so, after Pyrrhus' pause, 
Aroused vengeance sets him new a- work ; 
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall 
On Mars's armour, forged for proof eterne, 
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword 
Now falls on Priam. 

Do the same with the interval of the third, using 
after the numerals such examples as those given 
above under " Anticipation." Practice the fourth 
and the fifth in the same way, using numerals and 
examples expressing negation and interrogation 
respectively. 

Avery good technical drill is the following: 
Upon the second, after singing it as a slur, repeat 
rapidly such a sentence as this: "The numerals 
are one, and two, and three, and four, and five, 
and six, and seven, and eight;" — then take the 
third and say: "If it should be one, or two, or 
three, or four, or five, or six, or seven, or eight;" 
then the fourth, saying: "It is neither one, nor 
two, nor three, nor four, nor five, nor six, nor 
seven, nor eight; then the fifth, with this: " Is it 
one? is it two? is it three? is it four? is it five? 



74 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

is it six? is it seven? is it eight? Now take the 
falling slides for momentary completeness : It is 
one, and two, and three and four, and five, and six, 
and seven, and eight ; then take the falling circum- 
flex : it is one, not two ; it is two, not three ; it is 
three, not four; it is four, not five; it is five, not 
six ; it is six, not seven ; it is seven, not eight. 
Illustrate the " wave " by this clause: If it were 
only one instead of more. The rising circumflex 
by this: Is it but one? which is equivalent to 
these two clauses : You mean only one do you ? 

Now it is not maintained that all voices uni- 
formly measure thought-relations in exact musical 
intonation. Careful observation, however, shows 
that the majority of voices do give approximately 
such intervals as are indicated above, and that the 
average listener does interpret the inflections as 
here given. There are as great differences be- 
tween different kinds of rising slides as between 
rising and falling slides. There are as marked 
contrasts among circumflexes as between slide 
and circumflex. 

Inflection is a generic term, under which belong 
the species and varieties here given. It is indefi- 
nite and undiscerning to say "Arising inflection." 
So, it means nothing to say "the circumflex." Ex- 
pressive speech depends largely upon accurate, 
intelligent, facile use of the elements of discrimi- 
nation. They are not, however, to be sought as 
an acquirement, or as a nicety of vocalization, 
merely, but always as the minute measurement 



DISCRIMINATION. 75 

of thought-relations. The logical properties of 
the thought should therefore should always be 
recognized first, and distinctly. Never "try on" a 
passage by first speaking it aloud to see whether 
it sounds well, and then inferring what it might 
mean ; but settle the meaning first, and then em- 
ploy the tools of expression. This process may, at 
first seem mechanical, but it is really no more so 
than choice of words, or decision as to the construc- 
tion of sentences. Even more than those gram- 
matical and rhetorical operations, this expressional 
habit will rapidly become instinctive and auto- 
matic. A fine discernment of shades of meaning 
through intonation will greatly assist in interpret- 
ing spoken thought, and in reading character. The 
discriminative properties of intonation are the 
nicest indications of a cultured mind. 

The following passages are specially favorable 
for discriminative analysis : 

John ix. 

i Cor. xv. 35-54- 

Hamlet, Act i, Scene I, lines 1-60. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2, lines 160-260. 

Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1, whole scene. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 

As in Deliberation, so here, the purpose of mak- 
ing the paraphrase will be to oblige the reader to 
restate the thought ; and so to produce a moment- 
ary, fresh and accurate impression of the thing to 
be said. The purpose in Discriminative Para- 
phrase will differ from that in Deliberative in this 
respect: discrimination deals definitely with 
relations of ideas and thoughts, and the paraphrase 
that shall assist in grasping and revealing this 
discriminating property in the utterance, must 
concern itself chiefly with the relations of the 
elements. In general, therefore, the Discrimi- 
native Paraphrase will employ some change of 
structure in the words. 

Paraphrase to Reveal Completeness or 
Incompleteness. — Under this head the most 
frequent and the most important will be that 
reconstruction and amplification of the text which 
will reveal and justify the relation we have called 
"momentary completeness." The reason for this 
is found chiefly in the fact that the prevailing ten- 
dency, brought largely from the primary school, 
is "to keep the voice up till you come to a period." 
Now nothing can be more obvious than that many 
phrases and clauses marked only by a comma, and 
frequently by no punctuation whatever, are still 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. yj 

momentarily complete ; that is, the separate parts 
of the thought are not viewed as depending upon 
one another in any logical or rhetorical sense, but 
have, each one, its separate, individual force. 
Now this essential separateness in such elements 
is both revealed and justified by expansion of the 
compact phrases, usually such expansion as will 
make of each one a grammatically complete pro- 
position, allowing punctuation by periods, or at 
least by semicolons or colons. 

Authors differ greatly in the matter of punctu- 
ation. Victor Hugo, for example, inclines to 
punctuate largely with periods ; thus announcing 
to the reader the separateness and completeness of 
each element in the thought. Notice this para- 
graph : 

He sinks in two or three inches. Decidedly he is not on the 
right road ; he stops to take his bearings ; now he looks at his 
feet. They have,disappeared. The sand covers them. He draws 
them out of the sand ; he will retrace his steps. He turns back, 
he sinks in deeper. The sand comes up to his ankles ; he pulls 
himself out and throws himself to the left — the sand half-leg deep. 
He throws himself to the right ; the sand comes up to his shins. 

Behold him waist deep in the sand. The sand reaches his 
breast ; he is now only a bust. He raises his arms, utters furi- 
ous groans, clutches the beach with his nails, would hold by that 
straw, leans upon his elbows to pull himself out of this soft sheath; 
sobs frenziedly ; the sand rises ; the sand reaches his shoulders ; 
the sand reaches his neck ; the face alone is visible now. The 
mouth cries, the sand fills it — silence. The eyes still gaze, the 
sand shuts them — night. Now the forehead decreases, a little 
hair flutters above the sand ; a hand comes to the surface of the 
beach, moves and shakes, disappears. It is the earth-drowning 
man. The earth filled with the ocean becomes a trap. It pre- 
sents itself like a plain, and opens like a wave. 



78 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Now contrast with this a not dissimilar passage 
by Dickens: 

I wrapped myself in my clothes as quickly as I could, and ran 
into the street, where numbers of people were before me, all run- 
ning in one direction, — to the beach. I ran the same way, out- 
stripping a good many, and soon came facing the wild sea. Every 
appearance it had before presented bore the appearance of being 
swelled ; and the height to which the breakers rose and bore one 
another down, and rolled in, in interminable hosts, was most 
appalling. 

One mast was broken short off, six or eight feet from the deck, 
and lay over the side, entangled in a maze of sail and rigging ; 
and all that ruin, as the ship rolled and beat, — which she did with 
a violence quite inconceivable, — beat the side as if it would stave 
it in. Some efforts were being made to cut this portion of the 
wreck away ; for, as the ship, which was broadside on, turned 
toward us in her rolling, I plainly descried her people at work 
with axes — especially one active figure, with long curling hair. 
But a great cry, audible even above the wind and water, rose 
from the shore ; the sea, sweeping over the wreck, made a clean 
breach, and carried men, spars, casks, planks, bulwarks, heaps of 
such toys, into the boiling surge. 

A comparison of these two passages shows that 
the punctuation is neither definite nor quite self- 
consistent in either case. The final decision as to 
what constitutes a complete or incomplete ele- 
ment in the thought, must, after all, be made by 
the reader, according to his judgment of the rela- 
tive importance of each item and of the necessity 
for giving it the undivided thought at the instant. 

Take the first of these passages and change its 
structure. Unite the short periods of Hugo into 
mutually dependent and subordinate clauses. 
Take the separate elements in Dickens' descrip- 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. jg 

tion, and make a complete proposition of each 
one. Note the differences in the descriptive 
power. 

Note this passage from Charles Sprague on the 
American Indian : 

As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are 
broken, their springs have dried up, their cabins are in the dust. 
Their council-fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their 
war-cry is fast fading to the untrodden west. 

Each item amplifying the idea that the race has 
died out might be a complete sentence, or even a 
paragraph. It is obvious that if the clauses 
marked by the commas were read as " incomplete," 
much of the force would be lost. They must be 
thought of as separate and entire individually ; 
and to make such mental measurement reasonable 
the best way is to expand, so arranging the im- 
portant words that their completeness may appear, 
thus: 

Their arrows, the weapons with which they defended them- 
selves, and the means by which they procured their livelihood in 
their native forests, lie scattered and broken. The native springs 
at which they quenched their thirst have been exposed by the 
woodman's ax, and their sources have been dried up. You may 
search for their council fires. You will not find one upon any 
shore. You may listen for their war-cry. Its wild sound echoes 
no more. 

Poetry has perhaps more cases of momentary 
completeness ; and here the danger of obscuring 
the sense by failing to observe relations of com- 
pleteness and incompleteness is vastly greater, 
because the rhythmic force of the verse is likely 



80 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

to carry the mind over many compact expressions. 
Observe this relation in the following on "The 
Launching of the Ship," by Longfellow : 

We know what master laid thy keel, 
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge and what a heat, 
Were forged the anchors and thy hope. 

Here we have nothing but the comma, and 
sometimes not even that, to separate elements 
which are momentarily complete. To express 
this momentary completeness the passage might 
be paraphrased somewhat as follows : 

We are well assured of the masterly architecture which has 
planned thy structure.- We know well what diligent and capable 
hands have fashioned together the different parts of thy wondrous 
mechanism. We know that minute attention has been given to 
every mast. The overseeing eye has not failed to note the shape 
and strength of each separate sail. Minute inspection has been 
given to the strength of every rope. In our imagination we hear 
the ringing of the anvil. As we listen, we catch the beat of the 
hammer ; we feel the fervid flame in the forge. We know that 
all these forces were combined to give thee thy perfected shape. 

No paraphrase would be needed in the follow- 
ing passage from "Hiawatha," to show that each 
one of the tribes mentioned is thought of as sepa- 
rately as if there had been devoted to each a com- 
plete paragraph describing the coming of each 
tribe to the council. 

Down the rivers, o'er the prairies, 
Came the warriors of the nations, 
Came the Delawares and Mohawks, 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 8 1 

Came the Choctaws and Camanches, 
Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet, 
Came the Pawnees and Omawhaws, 
Came the Mandans and Dacotahs, 
Came the Hurons and Ojibways. 
All the warriors drawn together 
By the signal of the Peace-Pipe, 
To the Mountains of the Prairie, 
To the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry. 

"Incompleteness" on the other hand, may often 
be employed, even when we have strong punctu- 
ation, as semicolon, colon, or period : — as in these 
sentences : 

We die, but leave an influence behind us that survives. The 
echoes of our words are evermore repeated and reflected along the 
ages. It is what man was that lives and acts after him ; what he 
said sounds along the years like voices beyond the mountain 
gorges ; and what he did is repeated after him in ever-multiplying 
and never-ceasing reverberations. 

The period after ''survives" would seem to in- 
dicate completeness; so, indeed, it is — but that 
of "momentary completeness" rather than finality, 
and without any severe strain upon the sense we 
might change both the punctuation and the rela- 
tion of clauses, making it read as a preparatory or 
anticipatory clause introducing the sentence fol- 
lowing ; thus: 

The surviving influence of every man causes his words and 
deeds to be repeated after him. 

Take also the following sentences : 

The seed sown in life springs up in harvests of blessings or 
harvests of sorrow, whether our influence be great or small, 
whether it be good or evil ; it lasts, it lives somewhere, within 

7 



82 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

some limit, and is operative wherever it is. The grave buries the 
dead dust ; but the character walks the world and distributes it- 
self as a benediction or a curse among the families of mankind. 

Study the relations of completeness and incom- 
pleteness in these clauses, reconstruct the words 
by use of participial and prepositional phrases ; 
and change the punctuation so as to obviate the 
periods as they are given in the text, and locate 
periods where commas are now written. The 
thought in this particular case will not be essen- 
tially altered. The point in the exercise is, that 
many passages will occur in which the apparent 
completeness must be changed to incompleteness 
and vice versa. The thing always to be remem- 
bered is, that the punctuation is not to be slavishly 
followed, but that the real relations of the ele- 
ments are to be discovered by logical and rhetori- 
cal analysis of the thought. 

Mahomet still lives in his piratical and disastrous influence in 
the East ; Napoleon still is France, and France is almost Napo- 
leon ; Martin Luther's dead dust sleeps at Wittenberg, but Mar- 
tin Luther's accents still ring through the churches of Christen- 
dom ; Shakespeare, Byron, and Milton all live in their influence 
for good or evil ; the apostle from his chair, the minister from his 
pulpit, the martyr from his flaming shroud, the statesman from 
his cabinet, the soldier in the field, the sailor on the deck, who all 
have passed away to their graves, still live in the practical deeds 
that they did, in the lives they lived, and in the powerful lessons 
that they left behind them. 

Now re-arrange this paragraph. See whether 
the thought might not be expressed as justly, or 
even more so, by changing the punctuation and 
readjusting relations of completeness and incom- 
pleteness. 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 83 

Paraphrase to Show Assertion and As- 
sumption. 

A heart that is full of goodness, that loves and pities, that 
yearns to invest the riches of its mercy in the souls of those that 
need it — how sweet a tongue hath such a heart ! A flute sounded 
in a wood, in the stillness of evening, and rising up among leaves 
that are not stirred by the moonlight above, or by those murmur- 
ing sounds beneath ;• a clock that sighs at half-hours, and at the 
full hours beats the silver bell so gently, that we know not whence 
the sound comes, unless it falls through the air from heaven, with 
sounds as sweet as dewdrops make, in heaven, falling upon flow- 
ers ; a bird whom perfumes have intoxicated, sleeping in a blos- 
somed tree, so that it speaks in its sleep with a note so soft that 
sound and sleep strive together, and neither conquers, but the 
sound rocks itself upon the bosom of sleep, each charming the 
other ; a brook that brings down the greeting of the mountains to 
the meadows, and sings a serenade all the way to the faces that 
watch themselves in its brightness ; — these, and a hundred like 
figures, the imagination brings to liken thereunto the charms of a 
tongue which love plays upon. 

In this paragraph the words "flute," " clock," 
" bird," " brook," are cases of " assertion." A 
brief paraphrase would reveal this, as: " Listen to 
the flute." " Note the stroke of the clock." 
" Hear the song of the bird." " How joyously 
babbles that brook." By imagining a complete 
sentence, thus to indicate or point out these four 
illustrations, we bring to the front the real point 
and beauty of the paragraph. The punctuation is 
no guide to this, nor could it be without greatly 
marring the melody and proportion of the clauses. 
The voice, however, may most economically and 
most logically suggest such reconstruction as above 
indicated. The same is clearly shown in briefer 



84 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

sentences ; as, for example, some from the ninth 
chapter of John : 

And as he passed by he saw a man blind from his birth. 

As usually read " blind " is overlooked, and the 
emphasis is given to " birth " ; but certainly the 
first thing that arrests the attention, and the fore- 
most idea, logically, is that of the man's blindness, 
not the fact that it was congenital ; this appears 
later. Now to reveal the separate parts of this 
thought in such a way as to rightly assert " blind," 
we should have to reconstruct somewhat thus : as 
he passed by his attention was arrested by a blind 
man. The man was found, by subsequent investi- 
gation to have been blind from birth. Note the 
relation in the following verse : 

They say, therefore, to the blind man, again, what sayest thou 
of him in that he hath opened thine eyes ? 

Here the chief assertion is not upon the last 
word, but upon "thou ;" and to reveal and justify 
the proper assertion, we must invert the words of 
the text, making it read somewhat as follows : So 
they say again to the blind man: "Considering 
the fact that he has opened your eyes, what opin- 
ion of him do you entertain yourself?" 

In John vi. 32, we have a case of similar inver- 
sion which has been made by the Revision. It 
formerly read : 

Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father 
giveth you the true bread from heaven. 

It is now made to read : " It was not Moses that 



il 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 85 

gave you that bread out of heaven." This change 
in the phraseology throws the assertion where it 
belongs, upon the word " Moses." Similar inver- 
sions and changes of phraseology will often need 
to be made by the intelligent reader for similar 
purposes. In general, the relation of assumption 
can be indicated by participial or prepositional 
phrases, and by dependent clauses ; that of asser- 
tion, by separate or inverted propositions. 

Are not you moved, when all the sway of Earth 
Shakes like a thing unfirm ? O Cicero ! 
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 
Have rived the knotty oaks ; and I have seen 
Th' ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, 
To be exalted with the threatening clouds : 
But never till to-night, never till now, 
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. 

Supposing the "sway of the earth" and the 
" shaking " to be assumed, and the "you" to be 
asserted, in the first sentence, these relations 
would be expressed by paraphrasing thus : In all 
the swaying and shaking of the earth does nothing 
move you ? In the following lines, supposing the 
words "tempests, " oaks," " ocean," and " clouds " 
to be assumed, we might manifest this assumption 
in a concessive clause, as : Though I have seen 
raging tempests and scolding winds that could 
split the oaks, and have seen the heaving ocean 
rise even to the clouds, yet never until to-night, 
etc. 

On the other hand, suppose that the same words 
are to be asserted, or particularized ; then this 



86 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

might be expressed by separating the clauses thus : 
I have, in my day, seen horrible tempests, I have 
seen winds that would sever the toughest oaks ; I 
have seen manifestations of power in ocean ; I 
have known it toss the spray in its fury, until it 
seemed as if the waters would reach even to the 
clouds. 

Dec. Here lies the East : doth dot the day break here ? 

Casca. No. 

Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth ; and yon gray lines 
That fret the clouds are messengers of day. 

Casca. You shall confess that you are both deceived. 
Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises ; 
Which is a great way growing on the South, 
Weighing the youthful season of the year. 
Some two months hence, up higher toward the North 
He first presents his fire ; and the high East 
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here. 

Here inversion will be specially serviceable in 
the following cases: "The East is in this direc- 
tion." " Is it not in this quarter of the heavens 
that we see the break of day? " "And yon gray 
lines that fret the clouds are the day's messengers." 
Again, the two assertions upon " both " and " de- 
ceived " will be effected in paraphrase by making 
two clauses. You shall confess that you are 
deceived ; both of you. And the next line might 
be re-arranged thus: The point in which the sun 
rises is in this direction ; and the line, 

" Weighing the youthful season of the year," 

must not be so said as to throw the emphasis upon 
year, which is, of course, understood. It is the 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 87 

earliest portion of the year ; hence " youthful " 
must be asserted, and the line might be inverted 
so as to read, weighing that season of the year 
which is the earliest. In the following sentence, 
the word " north " receives the only full assertion. 
The absence of punctuation will incline the care- 
less reader to neglect the emphasis of this word. 
If he will stop to recast it, he will see that " north " 
more logically comes at the end of the sentence ; 
and its true position, as indicating emphasis in 
the sentence, might well be at the close, thus: 
"Some two months hence he first presents his fire 
up higher, toward the north." In the next clause, 
for a similar reason, we should be obliged to sepa- 
rate the word " east" from the other elements of 
the sentence, making of it a separate clause, as 
thus : " Considering, then, the extreme south point 
of the sun's rising, and the point highest north, 
where shall we look for the east ? That stands 
just as the capitol does, in this direction. 
Take this example from 1 Cor. xv. 50 : 

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God. 

The principal assertions are upon the pronoun 
"this," and the expression "flesh and blood." 
Both of these assertions may be revealed thus : 
Now the point of the argument, brethren, is this: 
The spiritual kingdom cannot be inherited by 
mortal bodies. The twentieth verse of the same 
chapter is often mistaken. 



88 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits 
of them that are asleep. 

The chief assertion is upon the verb " hath been 
raised " ; and in this verb the distinctive part is 
the auxiliary " hath," which expresses the fact as 
already completed. The attention does not need 
to be called to the idea of raising. The question 
is as to whether Christ's resurrection is now an 
accomplished fact. To reveal this, the first clause 
might be paraphrased thus : But now the resur- 
rection of Christ has taken place. 

Verse 35 of the same chapter is often misread : 

But some man will say, how are the dead raised and with what 
manner of body do they come ? " 

The emphasis is often placed upon the words 
" raised " and " come " ; but obviously the idea 
contained in " raised " has been so many times 
stated or distinctly implied in the preceding verses 
that it is now simply taken for granted, or as- 
sumed ; and the word " come " contains no essen- 
tial significance, being merely the commonplace 
filling out of the sentence. The true emphasis 
will be revealed by paraphrasing thus : But some 
man will say, this raising of the dead is done how ? 
And when the dead rise they will have what sort 
of body ? 

Now with these two words in mind as the cen- 
tral or emphatic words, read the verse as it is in 
the text. The inversion is not suggested as an 
improvement upon the style of the Epistle, but as 
a means of compelling one's mind to recognize the 
asserted elements in the different clauses. 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 89 

Complex Relations. — These, as already seen, 
are cases of combined ideas, expressed by com- 
posite motions of the voice, called circumflexes. 
In order to justify such double motion of the voice 
the mind of the reader needs to recognize the com- 
bined ideas implied in the words. He will make 
himself surer of this by analyzing, or separating 
into its component parts, each composite idea. 

Be not too tame neither. 

Here is a plain implication of one member of 
the antithesis, and it might be expanded thus : As 
you are not to be extravagant in your expression, 
so you are not to be too quiet. 

O, reform it altogether. 

Expanded : Do not be satisfied with a partial 
reform, finish it. 

Ham. I do not well understand that. 
Will you play upon this pipe ? 

Guild. My lord, I cannot. 

Ham. I pray you. 

Guild. Believe me, I cannot. 

Ham. I do beseech you. 

Guild. I know no touch of it, my lord. 

Ham. It is as easy as lying : govern these ventages with your 
fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will dis- 
course most eloquent music. 

Look you, these are the stops. 

Guild. But these cannot I command to any utterance of har- 
mony ; I have not the skill. 

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of 
me ! You would play upon me ; you would seem to know my 
stops ; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery ; you would 



go GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass : and 
there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ ; yet can- 
not you make it speak. 

'S blood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe ? 
Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you 
cannot play upon me. 

Here expansions of the combined ideas may be 
suggested, as in the following cases ; the second 
" cannot:" As I have told you once, so I must say 
again. The word " beseech": I have once asked 
you ; allow me to repeat the request. So in the 
word " touch": To say nothing of professional 
skill, I do not know the first thing about it. Upon 
the word " lying " the falling circumflex gives com- 
parison, which might be thus amplified : As easy 
as it is to lie, so easy it is to play. Then in Ham- 
let's longer speech : 

" Why, look you now — how unworthy a thing you make 
of me!" 

" me " contains a contrast, thus : If you cannot man- 
age a simple instrument, what will you do with 
the human will ? 

"You would seem to know my stops.'* 

The word " my " plainly implies a similar com- 
parison. " Do you think I am easier to be played 
on than a pipe?" Here we have a case of affirm- 
ation with interrogation : You consider me easier 
than a pipe, do you? And in "fret" we have a 
case of contrast with incompleteness, that of an- 
ticipation, which might be expanded thus: You 
may indeed attempt to manipulate me as a man 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 91 

fingers a flute, but though you try to do this, you 
will not succeed. The triple motion of the voice 
in the wave made upon the word " fret " doubtless 
implies this treble thought, or, at least, a double 
thought, consisting of the two parts, contrast and 
incompleteness. 

Observe similar composite effects in this extract 
from the quarrel scene in Julius Caesar: 

Cas. A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, 
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. 

Brit. I do not till you practice them on me. 

Cas. You love me not. 

Brti. ' I do not like your faults. 

Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. 

Brn. A flatterer's would not, though they did appear 
As huge as high Olympus. 

" Practice " might be expanded somewhat thus : 
Your faults, when kept to yourself, do not disturb 
me, but you must not employ them upon me. 
And in Cassius' reply, the word " love " contains 
evidently, some such contrast as this : It is not, 
Brutus, so much your suffering of wrong from me 
as your lack of affection for me. " Faults " has 
contrast with negation, and might be expressed 
thus : Your good traits are # 6ne thing, your faults 
another, I do not deny that I dislike the latter. 
The contrasts implied in " friendly " and " see " 
suggest this : Although such faults might exist 
they would not be detected by a friend. And in 
Brutus' reply, " flatterer's " manifestly contains the 
contrast between the sincerity of friendship and 
the hypocrisy of adulation. 



92 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Find and expand the contrasts in the following 
passage : 

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter? 

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 

Hani. Mother, you have my father much offended. 

Queen. Come, come ; you answer with an idle tongue. 

Ham. Go, go ; you question with a wicked tongue. 

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet ! What's the matter now ? 

Have you forgot me ? 
Ham. No, by the rood, not so : 

You are the Queen, .your husband's brother's wife ; 

And — would it were not so ! — you are my mother. 

All the arguments previously named in favor of 
paraphrasing, hold, with equal force, in the Mood 
of Discrimination. It is, perhaps, more prac- 
ticable and more useful here than in the other 
moods of utterance, since here the special purpose 
is to discover the relations between ideas and 
thoughts ; and these relations can be found in no 
other way so well as by this device of reconstruct- 
ing, inverting, and reformulating. 

The only danger in the habit is that one may 
hastily assume an interpretation, and then para- 
phrase so as to justify or defend his position. It 
is supposed, of course^ that the earnest student 
will decide upon the meaning of a passage accord- 
ing to rational principles of interpretation, and 
that he will choose a defensible position, and one 
that he can justify by a clear and natural restate- 
ment of the thought. Such new formation, bringing 
out the relations between the thoughts, constitutes 
the discriminative paraphrase. 



THE DISCRIMINATIVE PARAPHRASE. 93 

The usefulness of this practice as a mental gym- 
nastic, as well as a special aid to vocal rendering, 
can scarcely be overestimated. Accuracy, quick- 
ness, flexibility, and continuity of thinking, are the 
mental requisites ; and the direct results of the 
discipline will be variety, vividness, freshness, and 
reality in vocal expresssion. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EMOTION. 

Definition of Emotion. — Emotion, as a mood 
of utterance, is directly concerned with the sensi- 
bilities. Subjectively, it is the speaker's purpose 
to reveal his feeling, or to allow the feeling to 
manifest itself, in regard to the subject of dis- 
course ; and to awaken similar feeling in his 
hearers. 

We must distinguish between the ultimate, and 
the momentary purpose, as it regards emotion. 
The ultimate purpose has reference to the mood 
or state of mind to which the speaker wishes to 
bring his listeners finally. The momentary pur- 
pose has to do either with the means to that end, 
or with incidental or parenthetical thought. The 
ultimate purpose may dominate the whole speech, 
greatly modifying the feelings in the incidental 
and intermediate matter. The ultimate purpose 
may, at first, often be completely covered and con- 
cealed. Cases in which the ultimate purpose 
dominates the whole, perceptibly, are such as the 
following : " How They Brought the Good News 
from Ghent," by Browning ; " Lochinvar," by 
Scott ; Lincoln's Dedication Speech at Gettys- 
burg ; Webster's speech on the White Murder 
Case, and Blaine's Eulogy on Garfield. 

Examples of the temporary concealment of the 



EMOTION. 95 

ultimate purpose, are : Antony's Funeral Eulogy ; 
Portia's Court Room Speech ; Wendell Phillips' 
lecture on " Idols." 

In practical study we must inquire as to both 
the ultimate purpose and the momentary. The 
latter will, of course, be subservient to the former, 
and will be modified by it ; yet we must often lose 
sight, temporarily, of the ultimate aim, and give 
ourselves up for the moment to the passing emo- 
tion. 

Nothing is more subtile, more varied in its com- 
binations, more difficult to trace and analyze, than 
the element of emotion in expression ; yet nothing 
else gives to delivery such color, warmth, reality, 
and effectiveness. We must, therefore, attempt 
to survey at least the leading lines of feeling and 
their means of expression respectively. 

Means of Expression. — Of necessity many 
elements enter into the full expression of emotion, 
because emotion itself is complex, and is depend- 
ent upon many conditions and relations. The 
cause of the feeling must usually be apparent, and 
especially must the relations of ideas, out of which 
the feeling grows, be obvious. Hence the element 
of discrimination will be present with its interpre- 
tative slides and circumflexes. These will mold 
the melodies, (of which we must speak more fully 
in a later chapter). 

On the other hand, feeling, in most cases, acts 
directly on the will ; hence it generally leads to, 
and justifies, some distinct form of energy. Emo- 



g6 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

tion thus stands logically, and in most cases 
actually, between the intellectual and the volitional; 
it is induced by perception of facts and relations, 
and it leads to the commitment of the will to some 
definite state or action. 

The expression of emotion can not be fully given 
until all the elements of thought and utterance 
have been analyzed. We may, however, mark its 
principal features. 

The most noticeable element in the expression 
of emotion is " quality," or " color," of tone. 
Whatever other elements may be present or 
absent, if the thought is prevailingly emotional, 
this tone-element must prevailingly characterize 
the expression. 

Remark. — A distinction must be made between "quality" 
and "property." The latter is a generic term ; the former, spe- 
cific. " Property," as here used, means any essential attribute of 
tone; that which inheres in it of necessity ; that without which 
the tone could not exist. Thus the properties of tone are time, 
pitch, quality or "color," and force. 

Quality in tone is that characteristic which de- 
pends upon the degree of purity and volume, 
or of harshness, breathiness, or interruption of 
vibration. In every case it agrees with the general 
condition of the body ; and usually is directly in- 
duced by such condition. The bearing, muscular 
texture, government of breath, gesticulation, facial 
expression, — in short, the whole pantomimic mani- 
festation of the mind's attitude and action, have very 
much to do with the distinctive qualities of the voice. 
Practically, we never study tone-qualities apart 



EMOTION. 97 

from these analogous elements in pantomimic 
expression. For the purpose of the present analy- 
sis, however, we shall speak of the tone-qualities 
by themselves. 

We recognize six distinct qualities which fit 
approximately, and under the modifications above 
named, as many distinct classes of emotions. Each 
of these we shall give in connection with the par- 
ticular kind of feeling which it expresses. 

i . Normal Feeling". — This includes the emo- 
tion of the agreeable, the cheerful, the conciliating, 
the commendatory, or that which may be called 
simple, natural, or commonplace. This type of 
feeling lies nearest to the condition in which there 
is no marked emotion ; and yet it must character- 
ize a large portion of our daily speech, and of 
public utterance. Its chief element is the natural 
pleasure felt in meeting another mind, and in com- 
municating thought. This, of itself, gives a cer- 
tain degree of animation and pleasure. As no one 
department of the mind can be wholly dormant 
while another portion acts, so, even in the coolest 
processes of deliberation or discrimination, there 
will always be a traceable emotion, however slight. 
This lowest or most common degree, which we 
have called normal, enters as an element into per- 
haps ninety per cent, of our daily utterances. 

The normal feeling has for its tone-symbol 
pure quality. This is the simplest musical 
vibration. It is full and resonant, but not neces- 
sarily loud. It is the result of the normal action 



98 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

of the vocal organs. Such action produces the 
maximum of elasticity, concentration, and reso- 
nance, with the minimum of muscular effort. It 
agrees with the laws of sound, producing a self- 
propagating, automatic tone-wave. 

The " pure tone " is more objective in its 
effect than any other quality ; that is, it transmits 
with the least suggestion of the personality of the 
speaker. It therefore fits most naturally that 
emotional condition which has the least of subject- 
ivity, or of palpable and striking emotionality. 
The tone, like the mental attitude which it typifies, 
is characterized by the freshness, elasticity, and 
freedom which accompanies normal and agreeable 
activity. 

This quality of tone is to be secured : 

(i) By the exercises on the physical vocal charts. 

(2) By singing and chanting poetry and prose. 

(3) By reading musically ; that is, preserving 
the same kind of vibration, but adding clear artic- 
ulation and rhetorical groupings and inflections. 
The tone is to be placed in the front of the mouth. 
All parts of the vocal apparatus are to be flexible, 
elastic, vigorous, but perfectly easy in their action. 
The body must be kept in perfect poise, either in 
repose or in animation ; and the whole being is to 
be animated but restful. 

Select for the cultivation of this quality, pas- 
sages expressing repose, cheer, slight buoyancy, 
hearty interest, and animation. 



EMOTION. 99 

Harp of the North ! that mouldering long hast hung 

On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's spring, 
And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung, 

Till envious ivy did around thee cling, 
Muffling with verdant ringlet every string, — 

O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep ? 
'Mid rustling leaves, and fountains murmuring, 

Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep, 
Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep ? 

Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon, 

Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd, 
When lay of hopeless love, or glory won, 

Aroused the fearful or subdued the proud. 
At each according pause was heard aloud 

Thine ardent symphony sublime and high ! 
Fair dames and crested chiefs attention bowed ; 

For still the burden of thy minstrelsy 
Was Knighthood's dauntless deed, and Beauty's 
matchless eye. 

O, wake once more ! how rude soe'er the hand 

That ventures o'er thy magic maze to stray ; 
O, wake once more ! though scarce my skill command 

Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay : 
Though harsh and faint, and soon to die away, 

And all unworthy of thy nobler strain, 
Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway, 

The wizard note has not been touched in vain. 
Then silent be no more ! Enchantress wake again ! 

" Soldier, rest ! thy warfare o'er, 

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking ; 

Dream of battled fields no more, 
Days of danger, nights of waking. 

In our isle's enchanted hall, 

Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, 



IOO GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Fairy strains of music fall, 

Every sense in slumber dewing. 
Soldier, rest ! thy warfare o'er, 
Dream of fighting fields no more ; 
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, 
Morn of toil, nor night of waking. 

" No rude sound shall reach thine ear, 

Armor's clang, or war-steed champing, 
Trump nor pibroch summon here 
Mustering clan or squadron tramping. 
Yet the lark's shrill fife may come 
At the daybreak from the fallow, 
And the bittern sound his drum, 

Booming from the sedgy shallow. 
Ruder sounds shall none be near, 
Guards nor warders challenge here, 
Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing, 
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping." 

She paused, — then, blushing, led the lay, 

To grace the stranger of the day. 

Her mellow notes awhile prolong 

The cadence of the flowing song, 

Till to her lips in measured frame 

The minstrel verse spontaneous came. 

" Huntsman, rest ! thy chase is done ; 

While our slumbrous spells assail ye, 
Dream not, with the rising sun, 

Bugles here shall sound reveille. 
Sleep ! the deer is in his den ; 

Sleep ! thy hounds are by thee lying ; 
Sleep ! nor dream in yonder glen 

How thy gallant steed lay dying. 
Huntsman, rest ! thy chase is done ; 
Think not of the rising sun, 
For at dawning to assail ye 
Here no bugles sound reveille." — Scott. 



EMOTION. IOI 

The quality of mercy is not strain'd, 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath : it is twice blest ; 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes : 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown ; 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
• The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 
But mercy is above this sceptred sway ; 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 
It is an attribute to God himself ; 
And earthly power doth then show likest God's 
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 
Though justice be thy plea, consider this, 
That in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. — Shakespeare. 

2. Enlarged or Deepened Feeling. — This 

includes emotions roused by the contemplation of 
what is noble, grand, sublime, deeply serious, 
and earnest. This is not abnormal, but supernor- 
mal. It involves an expansion, an elevation, a 
broadening and intensifying of emotions that are 
natural and wholesome. Its physical symbol is 
the expanded pure tone, commonly called 
"orotund." This quality is deeper and fuller than 
the simply pure tone. The lower chest-vibration 
is a specially noticeable feature in it. There is a 
feeling of expansion and of fuller activity through- 
out the frame. The attitude will most naturally 
be that of animation, the entire body sympathizing 
with, and helping to produce, the sense of breadth 



102 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

and elevation which the tone symbolizes ; e. g. : 

Aspire to a worthy ambition. 

Let the torrents, like a shout of nations, answer, God ! 

It may be accompanied by repose in the bearing : 
but in this case the feeling is more passive, as 
when the sense of grandeur, sublimity, etc., is 
experienced in view of something wholly separate 
from the speaker's personal activity, — and yet not 
viewed as oppressive by its imposing grandeur, 
but rather as simply filling the receiving soul, as : 

"These are thy works, Parent of good." 

In the emotions employing the orotund quality 
there is a stronger subjective element: — that is, 
the speaker is conscious — or upon introspection 
may become conscious — of his soul as being filled 
and moved by the sense of nobility. It is natural 
that such emotions should express themselves by 
a vocal action which perceptibly fills and thrills 
the entire extent of the air chambers, and, sympa- 
thetically, the entire frame, with deep, voluminous, 
yet agreeable vibrations. 

Such action constitutes, perhaps, the loftiest 
expression of which man is capable. It may, in- 
deed, be affected, but it then becomes cheap and 
disgusting. When it is the open channel for great 
thoughts and worthy feelings, it is noble indeed. 
Technical study and practice can only prepare the 
way for natural, unaffected use of this quality. 

Begin practice with the simple pure tone, based 
upon the singing quality, which has the most 



EMOTION. IO3 

normal action of all the parts; then gradually 
deeper and fuller vibration, taking great care that 
the tone be not merely louder, and that it never 
become harsh. Let the poise and the muscular 
and nervous conditions of the whole body always 
agree perfectly with the quality of the tone. Let 
these induce the tone. Do not imagine that these 
expressive qualities of voice can be mechanically 
produced, or that they can be manufactured inde- 
pendently of the general mental and physical 
conditions. First secure these broader conditions ; 
cultivate a tone-vibration that can be clearly felt, 
especially in the head, face, and chest. The best 
vowels with which to begin are 00, oh, and ah. 
Start these lightly, and with perfectly quiet air 
column ; very gradually increase the volume, 
being careful not to emit more breath. Continue 
this practice until the air chambers and the entire 
frame are perceptibly filled with the vibration. 
Test the purity of the tone by holding a lighted 
match before the mouth : the simple vowels, 
uttered with the greatest fullness, should not flare 
the flame. Now take such passages as Byron's 
Apostrophe to the Ocean, 

Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue ocean, roll ! 

Or Ossian's address to the sun, 

O, Thou that rollest above ; round as the shield of my fathers ; 
whence are thy beams, O Sun ; thine everlasting light ? " 

Take also the last part of " The Building of the 
Ship," by Longfellow. « 

Thou, too, sail on, O ship of state. 



104 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

See, what a grace was seated on this brow ; 
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself, 
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; 
A station like the herald Mercury 
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; 
A combination and a form indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his seal 
To give the world assurance of a man. — Hamlet. 

i Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous : for praise is comely for 
the upright. 

2 Praise the Lord with harp : sing unto him with the psaltery and 
an instrument of ten strings. 

3 Sing unto him a new song ; play skilfully with a loud noise. 

4 For the word of the Lord is right ; and all his works are done 
in truth. 

5 He loveth righteousness and judgment : the earth is full of 
the goodness of the Lord. 

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our 
God, in the mountain of his holiness. 

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount 
Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall 
be made low : and the crooked shall be made straight, and the 
rough places plain : 

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall 
see it together : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 

Memorize a few such passages for daily prac- 
tice. 

3. Suppressed Feeling'. — This includes : 

(1) Secrecy or Fear, more objectively consid- 
ered : that is, imparted to others. 

(2) Intensity so great as to change the normal 
condition of thought and feeling ; impelling out- 
ward, while oppressing within, and partially 
Stirling. 



EMOTION. I05 

The vocal symbol of this emotional attitude is 
the aspirated quality. It results from mingling 
with the tone unvocalized breath. The suppres- 
sion of natural vocality corresponds to the sup- 
pression of normal communication. This may 
arise in one of three ways : 

(1) From mere exhaustion or weariness ; for 
example : 

Now lay me down, and, Floy, come close to me, and let me see 

you. — Death of Paul, in Dombey and Son. 

(2) The impulse (a) to impart a feeling of hush, 
as : 

And trembled away into silence as if it were loth to cease. — 
The Lost Chord by Adelaide Proctor. 

Or, (b) the impulse to impart a feeling of secrecy, 
as : 

Hush, and be mute, or else our spell is marred. — The Tempest, 
Act iv. Scene 1. 

(3) Overpowering intensity, yet not driven in 
upon itself, but seeking to vent itself. This takes 
the form of a forced, whistling sound, almost a 
hiss. For example : 

Thou despicable, sneaking wretch ! 

O, Cursed be my tribe if I forgive him ! 

It is obvious that (1) and (2, a) are scarcely ab- 
normal, while (3) is wholly abnormal. Correspond- 
ingly, the former will not be specially tiresome, 
either to the listener or to the speaker ; but the 
latter is unnatural and exhausting, as is the emo- 
tion which it portrays. The former will be 



106 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

accompanied by repose of bearing, sometimes 
exaggerated into lassitude, every portion of the 
frame being perfectly relaxed. The latter will be 
accompanied by the opposite bodily attitude, that 
of animation, or even of explosion, sometimes of 
recoil, while every nerve will be strained with 
the conflicting effort to suppress and express at 
the same time. The articulating organs must act 
with somewhat disproportionate energy in order 
to save the utterance from becoming a mere 
muffled drawl. 

In practicing this quality one must be careful to 
get the right bodily or pantomimic expression, 
and not to overdo the vocal expression. 

4. Harsh Feeling. — This includes anger, petu- 
lance, cruelty, disgust, irritation, etc. This is 
clearly abnormal, the sensibilities being in a dis- 
turbed, rasped condition. It will be vocally sym- 
bolized by a quality of tone which is produced by 
the admixture of harsh, grating noises made di- 
rectly bv the contraction of the pharyngeal 
muscles, and indirectly induced by a somewhat 
tense and knotted condition of the muscles and 
nerves of the entire body. This general or panto- 
mimic condition must precede and produce the 
vocal condition described. The voice is thus 
relieved from a great part of the strain which 
would be necessary if the vocal organs alone were 
to assume the abnormal condition indicated. The 
bearing, and the muscular texture of the whole 
frame will, at the same time, be more expressive 



EMOTION. I07 

than the harsh vocal quality alone ; these panto- 
mimic conditions will largely take the place of 
vocal harshness. The throat and neck muscles 
are delicate and extremely sensitive — they must 
not be violently contorted in any case, not even in 
the utmost violence of emotion. If, however, the 
attitude and the general bodily conditions express 
disturbance, which is the essence of this species of 
emotion, the vocal organs will then sufficiently 
sympathize, and will produce enough of the rasp- 
ing sound to typify the abnormal condition of the 
mind. This will ordinarily be enough to allow 
the general sense of rigidity to momentarily take 
possession of the voice. This condition is a per- 
version of the normal state. It represents dis- 
turbance, antagonism, self-conflict ; the absence of 
harmonious and agreeable conditions. Analo- 
gously, the tone that represents this mental 
attitude is produced by a perversion of the natural 
action, the rigid, disturbed condition of muscle 
opposing somewhat the natural vibration of the 
vocal organs. The term "guttural" is the tech- 
nical name of this vocal quality. The word itself, 
however, is somewhat too narrow, and perhaps 
misleading, as it points simply to the throat, which 
is not the only agent in producing this, nor the 
only seat of the effect. A more accurate and a 
safer term might be the rigid or tense voice. 

The bodily attitude inducing and accompanying 
this tone will often be that of antagonism, modi- 
fied by some unbalanced position. The poise of 



108 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

the body will often be disturbed, sometimes mo- 
mentarily destroyed, thus pantomimically typifying 
the lack of harmony in feeling and in tone. 
Examples of this quality are such as the following : 

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape ? — Milton. 

As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd 
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, 
Drop on you both ! A southwest wind blow on ye, 
And blister you all o'er ! — The Tempest. 

Examples. — Find and practice numerous illus- 
trations, using great care not to irritate the throat 
too much. If the practice is attended or followed 
by any pain, irritation, or excessive dryness of the 
throat, there has been too much contraction of the 
neck muscles. The needful contraction for this 
distortion of the tone may be made in the pharynx, 
that is, the back of the mouth and upper part of 
the throat. It need not be so low as the larynx, 
and there need not be any severe strain. This 
rigid or tense quality is simply the normal or pure 
tone under the influence of the rigid or contorted 
condition of the whole frame. When so produced, 
it will be found to be both safe, physically, and 
effective, expressionally. The exaggeration of it 
produces, at the same time, an abuse of the vocal 
organs, and an abuse of the sentiment. The fol- 
lowing passages are recommended for practice of 
this " tense " quality : 

Much of the Shylock part in " Merchant of 
Venice." 

Parts of Book II. in " Paradise Lost." 



EMOTION. IO9 

5. Oppressed or Covered Feeling*. — This is 
an intensely subjective condition of the emotions. 
It differs from the suppression spoken of above, in 
this respect: That was essentially objective — 
the purpose usually was to communicate to some 
one else the sense of suppression, as in secrecy, 
fear, or intensity of feeling ; here the emotion is 
driven in upon itself, seeking to hide rather than to 
reveal itself. 

This oppressed feeling is experienced whenever 
a sense of vastness, solemnity, awe, amazement, 
deep or superstitious reverence, dread, terror, and 
the like, causes an impulse to retreat and cover 
oneself, to shrink away, or escape from sight. 
It is oftener met in soliloquy than in conversation 
or open address. 

Angels and ministers of grace, defend us ! 

O, horrible ! O, horrible ! Most horrible ! 

O, all you host of Heaven ! O, Earth ! what else ? 
And shall I couple hell ? O, fie ! Hold, hold, my heart ; — 
And you, my sinews, grow no instant old, 
But bear me stiffly up. — Hamlet. 

O, my offense is rank, it smells to Heaven ; 
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, — 
A brother's murder ! Pray, can I not, 
Though inclination be as sharp as will ; 
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; 
And, like a man to double business bound, 
I stand in pause where I shall first begin, 
And both neglect. — Claudius. 

In thoughts from the visions of the night, 
When deep sleep falleth on men, 



I IO GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Fear came upon me, and trembling, 

Which made all my bones to shake. 

Then a spirit passed before my face ; 

The hair of my flesh stood up. — Job iv. 13-15. 

The kind of voice that pictures this mental con- 
dition is termed the pectoral quality. It is 
characterized by deep vibrations that are largely 
held within the chest, instead of being fully com- 
municated to the outer air, as in the case of the 
other qualities. In its extreme degree it becomes 
a half-smothered shudder within the chest ; hence 
its name. The tone comes " ab imo pectore." It 
might well be called the oppressed or shuddering 
quality. 

Its most useful applications are not found in 
extreme cases, but in milder forms, in which a 
slight covering of the tone expresses the cloud or 
vail of reverence, deep compassion, wonder, or in- 
trospective meditation, as well as the more marked 
varieties, such as awe and horror. The whole bod- 
ily attitude and action must agree with, and help 
to produce, this tone, else it will be superficial and 
affected. The attitude will generally be some 
degree of recoil, the muscles greatly relaxed in 
the more passive forms of reverence, and more 
tense in the active forms, as terror, horror, etc. 

Good examples are the following scenes in 
Hamlet: Act v. Scene 1 (considerable parts); 
Act i. Scene 4; Act iii. Scene 1, some parts of 
the soliloquy beginning, " To be or not to be"; 
Act iii. Scene 3, the usurping king's attempted 
prayer. 



EMOTION. I I I 

6. Agitated Feeling. — This, also, may be 
deep, but lacks the impulse to cover itself. It is 
more self-revealing and communicative. The feel- 
ing is such as to shake the soul. There is a quiv- 
ering and trembling of the sensibilities. It is 
found in two main types which are seemingly 
opposite. 

(i) Merriment, laughter, glee ; as: 

You must wake and call me early, call me early, 
mother dear ; 

To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad 
New year ; 

Of all the glad New year, mother, the maddest, mer- 
riest day ; 

For I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother ; I 'in to 
be Queen o' the May. — Tennyson. 

(2) Pity, grief, tenderness, compassion ; as in the 
following: 

I have been wild and wayward, but you'll forgive me now ; 
You'll kiss me, my own mother, and forgive me ere I go ; 
Nay, nay, you must not weep, nor let your grief be wild, 
You should not fret forme, mother, you have another child. 

And now, farewell ! 'Tis hard to give thee up, 
With death so like a gentle slumber on thee ! 
And thy dark sin ! Oh, I could drink the cup, 
If from this woe its bitterness had won thee. 
May God have called thee like a wanderer, home, 
My lost boy, Absalom ! — N. P. Willis. 

In either case the element of agitation does not 
reside simply in the utterance ; it is a property of 
the thought, or, more strictly, it is an attitude of 
the speaker's mind. It must be mentally measured 
antecedent to any consideration of how it shall be 



112 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

expressed. The question is, in the interpretation 
of any given passage : Is the feeling such as to 
occasion this agitated or trembling condition? If 
so, we have a reason for applying its specific rep- 
resentative, which is the tremulous quality. 
This consists in the shaking, wavering, or inter- 
rupted action of the voice. It is a sensitive and 
refined tremulousness, not a violent and mechan- 
ical " tremolo." This cannot be produced me- 
chanically ; it is vital that the whole frame partic- 
ipate in the thrill and quiver of the emotion ; the 
tone will then reflect delicately and expressively 
the sentiment of the mind. The bodily attitude 
may be that of animation or of recoil, possibly that 
of explosion: whatever it be, face, hands, shoul- 
ders, and chest — in short, the whole frame — must 
first indicate the feeling and induce this sympa- 
thetic condition of the voice. 

Examples. — We may suggest a somewhat 
wider range than the foregoing analysis has indi- 
cated. Selections for the cultivation of this 
property may be those expressing intense merri- 
ment, jollity, ridicule (when jocose), pity, extreme 
tenderness, pathos, grief, rage, mere weakness ( as 
of old age or sickness ) extreme hesitation, fright 
or self-consciousness. 

In addition to the examples above given many 
others may be found in Hamlet, Macbeth, Mer- 
chant of Venice, Julius Caesar; in many graphic 
descriptions, occasionally in orations, and not 
infrequently in natural, unconventional conversa- 
tion. 



EMOTION. 113 

Caution. — The student must not suppose that 
these qualities may be mechanically produced, as 
stops are drawn on the organ ; they must be, in 
every case, the outgrowth of two things : 

1. The sensitive, sympathetic condition of the 
mind, appreciating and keenly realizing the emo- 
tional significance of the passage to be delivered, 
and, 

2. A thoroughly trained and responsive physical 
frame. 

Moreover, it is not supposed that these qualities 
in any satisfactory degree can be cultivated by 
mere printed prescription. They all must be 
heard to be appreciated or understood. Yet the 
hearing of examples, however good, without some 
rational principle of interpretation, will result only 
in imitation, which is of all things most disastrous 
to expression. 

The purpose in giving the above analysis in the 
order in which it is here presented, namely, the 
mental condition before the physical means of 
expression, has been to prepare the mind rightly to 
measure the occasions for the use of these different 
qualities, and so to facilitate both the spirit of in- 
terpretation and the technical development ; for, 
as already said, even the technique itself develops 
more rapidly under the guidance of an analytic 
and sympathetic insight. 

There is a tendency in all young readers and 
speakers to overdo these emotional effects. Their 
value will depend upon their delicacy and subtle- 

9 



I 14 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

ness. During the process of technical preparation 
there may safely be a degree of exaggeration in 
these tone qualities ; but as soon as they are 
applied to the purposes of actual expression, they 
must be employed with prudence and moderation. 
They must be mixed as an old painter declared 
his colors were mixed, " with brains." It is cer- 
tain that the emotional properties constitute the 
life-like colors, the " tone " of most word pictures. 
The rhetorical reader or speaker will never seek 
highly impassioned extracts for the mere display 
of his vocal technique ; but the faithful interpreter 
must not fail rightly to measure this element, 
which is so vital in a large proportion of sponta- 
neous utterance. 



II 



CHAPTER VII. 

EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 

As in the other moods, so here, the purpose of 
paraphrasing will be to restate, to expand, some- 
times to contract — always to change — the phrase- 
ology, in such a way as to compel the reader to 
re-form the image, and revivify the feeling con- 
nected with the thing to be spoken. In the nature 
of the case, emotional paraphrase will be less cal- 
culating, possibly less logical, more spontaneous 
and unpremeditated than paraphrases employed in 
the other moods. It will, also, necessarily be 
more subjective ; yet it may reveal facts and rela- 
tions justifying the feelings conceived, or the 
attitude of the sensibilities ; and in this view it will 
have an objective character. In general there 
will be these two ways of paraphrasing: 

(i) Objective, showing occasion, circumstances, 
etc., calling for such and such feeling, and, 

(2) Subjective, consisting largely in the addition 
of qualifying terms, as adjectives, adverbs, excla- 
mations, expanded expressions, phrases, clauses, 
etc., which may more fully reveal the speaker's atti- 
tude toward the thing to be said, toward the audi- 
ence, or anything connected with the utterance. 

We shall take up the different classes of feeling 
as given in the previous chapter. 



I 1 6 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

i. Normal Feeling. — This class, of course, 
occupies the most neutral giound and covers 
many utterances which will be classed, in an 
expressional analysis, as predominantly delibera- 
tive or discriminative, rather than emotional. 
They are recognized here because even the sub- 
ordinate degree of emotionality which many of 
them contain, needs to be put to account in the 
coloring of the delivery. 

Considered objectively, the only paraphrasing 
or comment needed in the majority of such utter- 
ances will be the indication of the circumstances 
which make the communication agreeable or 
pleasant. Typical cases of this would be the 
ordinary rhetorical introduction. In this it is 
quite common for the speaker to express, in words, 
many of the attendant circumstances and condi- 
tions of his appearance before the audience. This 
is done for the very purpose of which we are 
now speaking; namely, to induce in his own mind 
and in the minds of his hearers an agreeable, pleas- 
ant emotional condition. Often the verbal utter- 
ance of such introductory considerations consumes 
needless time, and fails, after all, to secure its pur- 
pose as well as that purpose might be gained by 
the author's thinking or saying to himself the same 
or similar introductory remarks. 

It is almost always true that the speaker himself 
will need to think many more sentences than it 
will be safe or wise to speak. 

The following is the verv gentlemanly conver- 



II 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. WJ 

sational introduction of Dr. Richard S. Storrs in 
his lectures on " Preaching Without Notes".* 

Mr. President : Young Gentlemen : — 

There will be no misunderstanding between us, I presume, as 
to my general purpose and plan in coming hither, or in what I 
am to say to you now and hereafter. I do not come, of course, 
to deliver systematic and elaborate lectures, on the subject upon 
which lam to speak. You have professors to do that ; with lei- 
sure, skill, and an aptness for the office which I do not possess ; 
and I should only be intruding myself upon their function, with- 
out invitation and without warrant, if I were to attempt anything 
of the kind. I have come simply to talk with you a little, in a 
familiar way, of the conditions of success in preaching without 
notes ; and to offer some thoughts, concerning these conditions, 
which are suggested to me by my own experience. 

I have thought, in looking back on my Seminary course, that I 
should have been glad if some one who had entered the ministry 
before me had then told me, frankly and fully, as I hope to tell 
you, what he had learned by any efforts which he had made in 
this direction. So I have cheerfully accepted the invitation to do 
for you what I see I should have been glad to have had some one 
else then do for me. 

I am somewhat abashed, I confess, at finding so many present 
whom I have not come prepared to address : Professors, Secre- 
taries, Clergymen, Lawyers, Editors, and others — many of them 
masters of every art and power of eloquence, as I am not, and far 
better qualified to instruct me on the subject than I am to give 
suggestions to them. But I shall not be diverted from the one 
purpose which has brought me hither — to talk familiarly and 
freely to you. If what I am to say shall seem common-place, as 
very likely it will, to these gentlemen whose presence I did not 
anticipate, I can only remind them that they are not here at my 
invitation, and that if they choose to take part of their purgatory 

* Preaching Without Notes. Three lectures delivered before 
the students of Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. City, Jan., 
1875 ; by Richard S. Storrs, D.D., L.L.D.. Dodd & Mead, New 
York. 



I 1 8 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

in this life, and in this particular fashion, we cannot object. But 
I have only you to speak to ; and shall not turn aside to consider 
whether that which is in my mind is, or is not, what they have 
come to hear. 

As I said, the suggestions which I make will be largely those 
derived from my personal experience. I do not know that you 
will find much profit in them, for I remember the remark of Cole- 
ridge that "experience is like the stern-light of a ship at sea: it 
enlightens only the track which has been passed over." There 
are such differences between men, in temperament, habit, mental 
constitution, the natural and customary methods of work, that 
the experience of one may not suggest much of value to another, 
and I shall not be disappointed if mine is not very serviceable to 
you. Indeed, this matter of speaking freely to a public assembly, 
without notes, is eminently one in regard to which every man 
must learn for himself ; and no one can make his own method a 
rule for another, unless he can simultaneously change minds with 
him — a thing which in our case would be neither possible for me, 
nor perhaps profitable for you. Still : the rules which experience 
suggests are likely to be better than those which theorists elabor- 
ate in their libraries ; and I have got more help myself from hints 
of others, working in the same direction, than from any discus- 
sions in learned treatises. So I shall give you what I can, and 
hope for the best ; and if any thing which I may say shall prove 
to be of service to you, I shall be amply rewarded for the work. 

Now while no fault is to be found with this in- 
troduction, considering the nature and circum- 
stances of the lectures, and considering also the 
fact that they were extemporaneous and conversa- 
tional, yet it is obvious that in many other condi- 
tions it would not be admissible to make so 
extended an introduction of this nature ; but is 
there any word in this introduction which the 
speaker could have afforded to dismiss from his 
own mind ? Are there not, on the contrary, many 
more facts, considerations and feelings implied, 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 1 19 

than have found place even in this full expression ? 
Notice also the introduction to a similar course 
of lectures by Dr. Taylor.* 

" What can the man do that cometh after the King?" My two 
distinguished predecessors in this Lectureship, unmindful of the 
generous order of Boaz to his reapers, to "let fall some of the 
handfuls of purpose " for the poor Gentile gleaner, have so thor- 
oughly swept the field, that nothing is left for me save here and 
there an ear. This would be hard for anyone ; how much more 
for one who has to confess that he is, as yet, a learner in the 
department in which they are masters ! For two and twenty 
years I have been striving to reach my ideal of the Christian 
preacher, and it seems to me as if I were to-day as far from it as 
ever. Always, as I have appeared to advance towards it, it has fled 
before me, and still it hovers above and beyond me, beckoning 
me on to some attainment yet unrealized. Never did it seem to 
me so difficult to preach as it does to-day. The magnitude of the 
work grows upon me the longer I engage in it ; and with every 
new attempt I make, there comes the painful consciousness that 
I have not yet attained. Twenty years ago, I thought I could 
preach a little, and flattered myself that I knew something about 
Homiletics. Now I feel that I am but a beginner, and the 
thought of addressing you upon such a subject fills me with dismay. 
Still we may get on well together if only you will consent to re- 
gard me as a fellow student, or at least as an elder brother, striv- 
ing with you after the same end, and speaking to you out of the 
fullness of his heart, that he may warn you to avoid the mistakes 
which he has made, and stimulate you to aim after that efficiency 
on which his own heart is set. 

Compare with these the brief, condensed senten- 
ces reported to have been given by Daniel Webster 
as an introduction to his famous speech in the 
" White Murder Case." It is probable that at 

* The Ministry of the Word, by Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., Anson 
F. Randolph & Co., N. Y. : A course of Lectures on Preaching, 
delivered at Yale, Union, Princeton, and Oberlin. 



120 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

this distant day we have not the full introduction 
as Webster spoke it in the court room, but, rather, 
the condensation of compilers and publishers. 
Nevertheless it serves our purpose as well, per- 
haps even better, as illustrating how many implied 
thoughts and considerations must be passing 
through the speaker's mind during the utterance 
of the brief introduction, in order to give the 
necessary tone and color to the few words he 
says. 

Against the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, I cannot have 
the slightest prejudice. I would not do him the smallest injury 
or injustice. 

Now it is evident that these few words are 
packed full of conciliation and kindly feeling, be- 
longing precisely to the class we are now consid- 
ering. The brief words themselves, however, 
must be infused with the feeling suggested to the 
speaker's own mind, by mentally saying many 
additional things, while speaking to the jury the 
brief sentences quoted. The mental amplification 
might be somewhat as follows: 

I am simply a citizen, and a representative of the bar, making 
it my business and my duty to attend to the demands of justice. 
It cannot be an object to me, in such a case as this, to secure the 
conviction and punishment of a man who has never done me, 
personally, the slightest injury. The prisoner is a fellow man, 
toward whom, as such, I have the feeling of companionship and 
brotherhood' as toward any other man. There can be nothing in 
the relations between us to cause me to feel otherwise. Indeed, 
there are no particular relations existing between us. I am 
here simply, gentlemen, an honest, unprejudiced man, as you 
all know me, to seek the interests of justice. Let me then ask 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 121 

you, first of all, to lay aside — if you have conceived any such — 
all feelings of suspicion toward me, as if I would wrong this poor 
fellow, or as if I could have any other interests in the case than 
those of good will and that which is best for all. 

It is not simply in oratory that such amplifica- 
tions are to be supplied. Anything in literature, 
when read aloud, is to be vocally colored by such 
considerations as the reader may suppose to have 
been in the mind of the writer in connection with 
the words penned. Take, for example, this appar- 
ently dry and unemotional sentence with which 
Macaulay introduces his History of England. 

I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of 
King James the Second down to time which is within the memory 
of men still living. 

We can mentally add many considerations show- 
ing the interest and enthusiasm of the great his- 
torian in his work, the pleasure which he has had 
in collecting his material, and the satisfaction he 
feels in being able now to present it to the public. 
All these considerations, doubtless, are contained 
in the words. We cannot wholly separate the 
result from the processes which produced it, and 
the emotional states which accompanied those 
processes. 

The same would be much more strikingly true 
in the introduction to such stories and descriptions 
as are primarily designed to give pleasure in the 
communication. The author is to be thought of 
as conversationally and agreeably conveying to 
you many side-remarks which would reveal this 



122 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

attitude of affability, of approachable, friendly in- 
tercourse. We often speak of " reading between 
the lines " ; and the phrase indicates a real 
thing. It might be extended to " reading between 
the words." All such interlineations, when de- 
signed to interpret the emotional attitude of the 
writer or speaker, constitute a legitimate emotion- 
al paraphrase. Dickens has many passages which 
are to be so treated mentally; so has Irving; so 
have most of the writers of fiction. We not only 
rob ourselves of much possible comfort and pleas- 
ure in the reading ; but, doubtless, rob the writ- 
ings of much of their intended significance, when 
we receive them coldly or without any mental 
measurement of the emotions which prompted and 
accompanied them. 

In the following paragraph from Dickens' " A 
Child's Dream of a Star," interpolate the emotional 
matter that seems to you to be naturally implied. 

There was once a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and 
thought of a number of things. He had a sister who was a child, 
too, and his constant companion. They wondered at the beauty 
of flowers ; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky ; 
they wondered at the depth of the water ; they wondered at the 
goodness and power of God who made them lovely. 

Also, in this, from a chapter of " The Newcomes," 
by Thackeray : 

If we are to narrate the youthful history not only of the hero of 
this tale, but of the hero's father, we shall never have done with 
nursery biography. The gentleman's grandmother may delight 
in fond recapitulation of her darling's boyish frolics and early 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 1 23 

genius, but shall we weary our kind readers by this infantile 
prattle, and set down the revered British public for an old 
woman ? 

Do the same in this extract from a letter by 
Charles Kingsley.* 

Here I am, in a humble cottage in the corner of a sunny green. 
A little garden, whose flower beds are surrounded with tall and 
aged box, is fenced in from the path with a low white paling. 
The green is gay with dogs, and pigs, and geese ; some running 
frolic races, and others swimming in triumph in a glassy pond 
where they are safe from all intruders. Every object around is 
either picturesque or happy, fulfilling in their different natures 
the end of their creation. Surely, it must have been the special 
providence of God that directed us to this place ! and the thonght 
of this brightens every trial. There is independence in every 
good sense of the word and yet no loneliness. The family at the 
Brewery are devoted to Charles, and think they cannot do enough 
for him. The dear old man says he has been praying, for years, 
for such a time to come, and that Eversley has not been so blest 
for sixty years. Need I say rejoice with me ? Here I sit sur- 
rounded by your books and little things which speak of you. 

2. Enlarged or Deepened Feeling. — Men- 
tal amplifications may here be made, tending to 
enhance the reader's conception of the elements 
of nobility, depth, grandeur, sublimity — all full- 
ness of feeling. This may be done : 

(1) Objectively, by showing added considera- 
tions, facts, arguments, or circumstances which 
may cause the mind longer to dwell upon, and 
more fully to receive, the emotional significance. 

(2) Subjectively, by the addition of exclamatory 

* Taken from : Charles Kingsley, His Letters and Memories of 
his Life, edited by his wife : Chas. Scribner's Sons, N. Y. 



124 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

or other emotional elements in the phraseology, 
which shall expand the expression. 

Literature is full of cases in which such expan- 
sion actually is made in words. We will notice, 
first, some of these cases, and then others in which 
the expansion is only implied. Of the first, or 
verbally expanded, take these examples as illus- 
trating (i) above ; that is, the objective amplifica- 
tion, by expansion ; yet giving the emotional 
significance. Take this passage showing Antony's 
estimation of Brutus : 

This was the noblest Roman of them all ; 

All the conspirators, save only he, 

Did that they did in envy of great Cresar ; 

He only, in a general honest thought 

And common good to all, made one of them. 

His life was gentle ; and the elements 

So mixed in him, that nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, " This was a man." 

— Julius Caesar, Act v. Sc. 5. 

. For the second, or subjective expansion, study 
this exclamatory passage from Coleridge's " Hymn 
to Mont Blanc :" 

Awake, my soul ! Not only passive praise 
Thou owest ! Not alone these swelling'tears, 
Mute thanks, and secret ecstasy ! Awake, 
Voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, Awake ! 
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn. 

In the following, expand the condensed expres- 
sions, giving the objective emotionality, or the 
more fully considered circumstances and reasons 
leading to fuller measurement of the feeling : 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. I 25 

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! 

The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword ; 

The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 

The glass of fashion and the mold of form, 

The observed of all observers, quite, quite down ! 

— Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1. 

In a similar way expand the following separate 
sentences. 

Speak marble lips ! Teach us the love of liberty protected by 
law. 

Rest in peace, Great Columbus of the heavens ! 

Glorious England ! 

The Union cannot be dissolved. 

Here will be their greatest triumph. 

Who shall put asunder the best affections of the heart ? 

We loved the land of our adoption ! 

Make a more subjective expansion of such pas- 
sages as these : 

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ! 

Aspire to a worthy ambition. 

How precious are thy thoughts unto me ! 

A good name is better than precious ointment. 

Gird up thy loins now, like a man. 

Comfort ye my people. 

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high 
mountain ! 

Liberty and Union, now and forever ; one and inseparable ! 

He is as honest a man as ever breathed. 

Search creation round, where will you find a country that pre- 
sents so sublime a spectacle, so interesting an anticipation ? 



126 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

It may be that only in heaven 
I shall hear that grand " amen." 

3. Suppressed Feeling. 

How like a fawning publican he looks ! 

I hate him for he is a Christian ; . 

But more for that in low simplicity, 

He lends out money gratis and brings down 

The rate of usance here with us in Venice. 

If I can catch him once upon the hip, 

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 

He hates our sacred nation ; and he rails 

Even there where merchants most do congregate, 

On me, my bargains and my well-won thrift, 

Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe, 

If I forgive him ! — Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3. 

This is an evident case of emotional amplifica- 
tion by the author himself ; and, as Shylock stands 
aside, thus soliloquizing, we see how his own 
mind makes the expansive paraphrase upon the 
single word " hate." This expansion is both ob- 
jective and subjective in the sense in which we 
have used the terms here ; that is, it both gives 
additional reasons, and intensifies itself by repeti- 
tions and exclamatory phrases. It gives the sup- 
pression of intensity. Other examples from the 
same source may be found in the Fourth Act, as 
when Shylock says: 

Hates any man the thing he would not kill ? 
I stand for judgment ; answer, shall I have it ? 
To cut the forfeiture from off that bankrupt there. 

The suppression arising from faintness, weari- 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 1 27 

ness, or despair, appears in the same character 
later in this scene, when he says: 

Shall I have barely my principal ? 

. , . . . Why then the devil give him good of it. 

I'll stay no longer question Nay. 

Take my life and all, pardon not that. 

You take my house when you do take the prop 

That doth sustain my house ; you take my life 

When you do take the means whereby I live. ... 

I pray you give me leave to go from hence, 

I am not well : send the deed after me, 

And I will sign it. 

A more agreeable case of the suppression of 
quietness, worship, silence, is contained in this 
stanza from " The Lost Chord," by Miss Procter : 

It linked all perplexed meanings 
Into one perfect peace, 
And trembled away into silence 
As if it were loth to cease. 

The hush of fear or superstition is well por- 
trayed in the following extract from Hamlet, Act 
1, Scene 1. 

Mar. Peace, break thee off ; look, where it comes again ! 

Bernardo. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. 

Marcellus. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it, Horatio. 

Bernardo. Looks it not like the king ? Mark it, Horatio. 

Horatio. Most like : it harrows me with fear and wonder. 

Bernardo. It would be spoke to. 

Marcellus. Question it, Horatio. 

Horatio. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, 
Together with that fair and warlike form 
In which the majesty of buried Denmark 
Did sometimes march ? by heaven I charge thee, speak ! 

Marcellus. It is offended. 

Bernardo. • See, it stalks away ! 



128 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Horatio. Stay ! speak, speak ! I charge thee, speak ! 

[Exit Ghost. 

Marcellus. 'Tis gone and will not answer. 

Ber. How now, Horatio ! you tremble and look pale : 
Is not this something more than phantasy ? 
What think you on 't ? 

Horatio. Before my God, I might not this believe, 
Without the sensible and true avouch 
Of mine own eyes. / 

Marcellus. Is it not like the king ? 

Horatio. As thou art to thyself : 
Such was the very armour he had on 
When he th' ambitious Norway combated ; 
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, 
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. 
'Tis strange. 

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, 
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. 

Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not ; 
But, in the gross and scope of my opinion, 
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. 

In all the above, amplify or expand by added ex- 
planations and considerations ; also by exclama- 
tory and other emotional words interjected. 

Eypand and paraphrase to show the emotion of 
suppressed feeling such expressions and passages 
as the following : 

Listen ! what is that ? 

Methinks I see him now. 

Do you hear anything ? 

With him this the end of earth. 

And in the hush that followed prayer. 

'Tis the soft twilight. 

O, let me stop here, I 'm too tired to go any farther. 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 1 29 

Find and make similar examples suggesting sup- 
pressed feeling, and paraphrase them so as to bring 
out more fully the sense of hush, intensity, weari- 
ness, secrecy, fear, and the like. 

4. Harsh or Severe Feeling. — In paraphras- 
ing to express this emotion, remarks may be 
interjected to show the occasion and the circum- 
stances ; and to give some hint as to how the 
speaker would naturally feel, and the reason for it. 
This will constitute the more objective paraphrase, 
but we shall more often have the subjective form, 
depending largely on exclamatory and intensify- 
ing clauses, phrases, and words. It is always to 
be borne in mind that the paraphrase is for the 
speaker's or reader's personal use, and is not an 
emendation of the text. In these abnormal forms 
of emotion, written expansions would generally be 
more offensive than in the normal forms. For a sim- 
ilar reason the harsher forms of utterance tend more 
to exclamatory and otherwise elliptical expression ; 
in proportion, they are more closely packed with 
emotional significance. The fuller mental state- 
ment which it is the business of the paraphrase to 
secure, is the measurement of the words that are 
suppressed. 

In the following extract from the " Christmas 
Carol," by Dickens, observe that Scrooge's re- 
marks are in almost every case mere exclamations. 
The long speech beginning, " What else can I be?" 
affords a good example of that amplification which 
we have called objective, namely, that which states 

10 



I30 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

reasons, considerations, and arguments justifying 
the shorter emotional utterances. Here we have 
done for us, by the novelist, that which we must 
often do for ourselves. It requires no strain of 
imagination to expand still further the expressions 
" bah ! " and " humbug ! " Note also the repetition : 
this is almost always an element in emotional 
expansion. It is not tautology, but figurative 
repetition. 

"A merry Christmas, uncle ! God save you ! " cried a cheerful 
voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him 
so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. 

" Bah ! " said Scrooge, " Humbug ! " 

He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and 
frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow ; his face 
was ruddy and handsome ; his eyes sparkled, and his breath 
smoked again. 

"Christmas a humbug, uncle ! " said Scrooge's nephew. " You 
don't mean that, I am sure ? " 

"I do," said Scrooge, "Merry Christmas! What right have 
you to be merry ? What reason have you to be merry ? You're 
poor enough." 

"Come then," returned the nephew gaily. " What right have 
you to be dismal ? What reason have you to be morose ? You're 
rich enough." 

Scrooge, having no better answer ready on the spur of the mo- 
ment, said, "Bah ! " again ; and followed it up with " Humbug ! " 

" Don't be cross, uncle ! " said the nephew. 

" What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in such 
a world of fools as this ? Merry Christmas ! Out upon Merry 
Christmas ! What's Christmas to you but a time for paying bills 
without money ; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not 
an hour richer ; a time for balancing your books and having every 
item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead 
against you? If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. I 3 I 

" every idiot who goes about with ' Merry Christmas ' on his lips, 
should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of 
holly run through his heart. He should ! " 

" Uncle ! " pleaded the nephew. 

"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas in 
your own way, and let me keep it in mine." 

"Keep it ! " repeated Scrooge's nephew. " But you don't keep 
it." 

"Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much good 
may it do you ! Much good it has ever done you ! " 

" There are many things from which I might have derived good, 
by which I have not profited, I dare say," said the nephew, 
"Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always 
thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from 
the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything be- 
longing to it can be apart from that — as a good time ; a kind, 
forgiving, charitable, pleasant time ; the only time I know of, in 
the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one 
consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people 
below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, 
and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And 
therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver 
into my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do 
me good ; and I say, God bless it ! " 

"You're quite a powerful speaker, sir," said Scrooge. "I won- 
der you don't go into Parliament." 

" Don't be angry, uncle. Come ! Dine with us to-morrow." 

Scrooge said he would see him — yes, indeed he did. He went 
the whole length of the expression, and said he would see him in 
that extremity first. 

" But why ? " cried Scrooge's nephew. " Why ? " 

"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge. 

" Because I fell in love." 

" Because you fell in love ! " growled Scrooge, as if that were 
the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry 
Christmas. " Good afternoon ! " 

"Nay uncle, but you never came to see me before that hap- 
pened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?" 

" Good afternoon," said Scrooge. 



132 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

" I want nothing from you ; I ask nothing of you ; why cannot 
we be friends? " 

"Good afternoon," said Scrooge. 

"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. vVe 
have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I 
have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my 
Christmas humor to the last. vSo A Merry Christmas, uncle ! " 

" Good afternoon ! " said Scrooge. 

"And A Happy New Year ! " 

" Good afternoon," said Scrooge. 

The following extract from King Richard III. 
Act i. Scene 3, well illustrates emotional utter- 
ances, some of which are already abundantly am- 
plified in the text ; others ma)' be amplified still 
more by subjective paraphrase. These latter 
occur especially in the short, interjected remarks 
of Queen Margaret. This element culminates in 
the single words constituting, at one point, the 
whole speech of Gloucester and Queen Margaret 
respectively ; but evidently implying and convey- 
ing very many words, epithets, allusions, whole 
chapters of history, and torrents of invective. 

Q, Eliz. My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne 
Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs : 
By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty 
Of those gross taunts I often have endured. 
I had rather be a country servant-maid, 
Than a great queen, with this condition, 
To be thus taunted, scorn'd, and baited at : 

Enter Queen Margaret, behind. 

Small joy have I in being England's queen. 

Q. Mar. And lessen 'd be that small, God, I beseech thee ! 
Thy honour, state and seat is due to me. 

Glou. What ! threat you me with telling of the king? 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. I 33 

Tell him, and spare not : look, what I have said 
I will avouch in presence of the king : 
I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower, 
'Tis time to speak ; my pains are quite forgot. 

Q. Mar. Out, devil ! I remember them too well : 
Thou slewest my husband Henry in the Tower, 
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury. 

Glou. Ere you were queen, yea, or your husband king, 
I was a pack-horse in his great affairs ; 
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, 
A liberal rewarder of his friends : 
To royalize his blood I spilt mine own. 

Q. Mar. Yea, and much better blood than his or thine. 

Glou. In all which time you and your husband Grey 
Were factious for the house of Lancaster ; 
And, Rivers, so were you. Was not your husband 
In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain ? 
Let me put in your minds, if you forget, 
What you have been ere now, and what you are ; 
Withal, what I have been, and what I am. 

Q. Mar. A murderous villain, and so still thou art. 

Glou. Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick ; 
Yea, and forswore himself, — which Jesu pardon ! — 

Q. Mar. Which God revenge ! 

Glou. To fight on Edward's party for the crown ; 
And for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up. 
I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's ; 
Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine : 
I am too childish-foolish for this world. 

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world, 
Thou cacodemon ! there thy kingdom is. 

Riv. My Lord of Gloucester, in those busy days 
Which here you urge to prove us enemies, 
We follow'd then our lord, our lawful king : 
So should we you, if you should be our king. 

Glou. If I should be ! I had rather be a pedlar : 
Far be it from my heart, the thought of it ! 

Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose 
You should enjoy, were you this country's king, 



134 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

As little joy may you suppose in me, 
That I enjoy, being the queen thereof. 

Q. Mar. As little joy enjoys the queen thereof ; 
For I am she, and altogether joyless. 

I can no longer hold me patient. [Advancing. 

Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out 
In sharing that which you have pill'd from me ! 
Which of you trembles not, that looks on me ? 
If not, that, I being queen, you bow like subjects, 
Yet that, by you deposed, you quake like rebels ! 
O gentle villain, do not turn away ! 

Glou. Foul, wrinkled witch, what makest thou in my sight ? 

Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd ; 
That will I make before I let thee go. 

Glou. Wert thou not banished on pain of death ? 

Q. Mar. I was ; but I do find more pain in banishment, 
Than death can yield me here by my abode. 
A husband and a son thou owest to me ; 
And thou, a kingdom ; all of you, allegiance : 
The sorrow that I have, by right is yours, 
And all the pleasures you usurp are mine. 



Hast. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe, 
And the most merciless that ere was heard of ! 

Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported. 

Dor. No man but prophesied revenge for it. 

Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it. 

Q. Mar. What, were you snarling all before I came, 
Ready to catch each other by the throat, 
And turn you all your hatred now on me ? 
Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven, 
That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death, 
Their kingdom's loss, my woful banishment, 
Could all but answer for that peevish brat ? 
Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven ? 
Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses ! 
If not by war, by surfeit die your king, 
As ours by murder, to make him a king ! 
Edward, thy son, which now is Prince of Wales, 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 135 

For Edward my son, which was Prince of Wales, 

Die in his youth by like untimely violence ! 

Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen, 

Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self ! 

Long mayst thou live to wail thy children's loss ; 

And see another, as I see thee now, 

Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine ! 

Long die thy happy days before thy death ; 

And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief, 

Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen ! 

Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by, 

And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son 

Was stabbed with bloody daggers : God, I pray him, 

That none of you may live your natural age, 

But by some unlook'd accident cut off ! 

Glou. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag ! 

Q. Mar. And leave out thee ? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear 
me. 
If heaven have any grievous plague in store 
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee, 
O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe, 
And then hurl down their indignation 
On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace ! 
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul ! 
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest, 
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends ! 
No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, 
Unless it be while some tormenting dream 
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils ! 
Thou elfish-marked, abortive, rooting hog ! 
Thou that was seal'd in thy nativity 
The slave of nature and the son of hell ! 
Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb ! 
Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins ! 
Thou rag of honour ! thou detested — 

Glou. Margaret. 

Q. Mar. Richard ! 

Glou. Ha ! 

Q. Mar. I call thee not. 



136 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Glou. I cry thee mercy then, for I had thought 
That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names. 

In the following extract from Merchant of 
Venice, Act iii. Scene 3, we have a combination of 
the objective and the subjective elements of ex- 
pansion, in the words of Shylock. All that he 
says is either in explanation or else in virtual rep- 
etition, of this one sentence, " I will have my bond." 

Shylock. Gaoler, look to him : tell not me of mercy ; 
This is the fool that let out money gratis : 
Gaoler, look to him. 

Ant. Hear me yet, good Shylock. 

Shy. I'll have my bond ; speak not against my bond : 
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond. 
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause ; 
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs : 
The duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, 
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond 
To come abroad with him at his request. 

Ant. I pray thee, hear me speak. 

Shy. I'll have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak : 
I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, 
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 
To Christian intercessors. Follow not ; 
I'll have no speaking : I will have my bond. 

See how many words of this harsh or severe 
style are implied in this short expression with 
which Lady Macbeth answers her husband. He 
has just said, " If we should fail — "; she answers, 
" We fail ! But screw your courage to the stick- 
ing-place, and we'll not fail." The words carry all 
this and much more: 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 137 

O, you miserable coward ! Talk of our failing ! What ails you ? 
Why are your knees smiting together, you white-livered wretch ! 
Come, command yourself, man ! Have a little pluck ! I am 
ashamed of you ! 

Take such single expressions as these : Begone ! 
Shame! Beast! Scoundrel! Villain! used as 
mere interjections: — fit them into situations real 
or imagined, and expand the expressions both ob- 
jectively and subjectively ; that is, both by indi- 
cating the circumstances calling for the emotional 
expression ; and by repeated intensifying or equiv- 
alent exclamations. Then take a milder form of 
harshness or severity ; as, for instance, that ex- 
pressing expostulation with some degree of re- 
proof: 

Are we so low, so base, so despicable that we may not express 
our horror ? — Henry Clay. 

Go home, if you dare ; go home, if you can, to your constitu- 
ents, and tell them that you voted it down ! — Ibid. 

Examples for Study. — Find cases for such 
paraphrasing in the Court Room Scene in Mer- 
chant of Venice, Act iv. Scene i ; in the Closet 
Scene of Hamlet, Act iii. Scene 4 ; in the words 
of the Tribunes in Julius Caesar, Act i. Scene 1 ; 
and in the cries of the citizens at the conclusion of 
Antony's speech, Julius Caesar, Act iii. Scene 3. 

In its typical form, this style appears much more 
frequently in dramatic works. In modified forms, 
harshness or severity may be found in ora- 
tory and in conversation whenever there is a 



138 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

sense of sternness coupled with something of dis- 
turbance. 

5. Oppressed or Covered Feeling. — Here 

the expression is still more elliptical, and must, 
proportionately, be expanded the more in the 
mental amplification. Take this one line from 
Hamlet : 

O, horrible ! O, horrible ! Most horrible ! 

— Act i. Scene 5, line 80. 

In this we have, by implication, the entire scene, 
including the whole story which Hamlet hears 
from his father's spirit. In reading this one line 
the mind will naturally run over all the preceding, 
at least, and perhaps much of the following, mat- 
ter. 

Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! let the earth hide thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with. — Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 4. 

Here we may imagine the terrified Macbeth as 
uttering, in addition to the exclamatory and repe- 
titious words of the text, still other ejaculations 
and expansions, as: 

Hideous, pursuing enemy, shall I never be rid of thee ? Wilt 
thou pursue me unrelentingly by day and night ? Can no cover 
shelter me from thee ? Thou belongest in the dark underworld. 
Hie thee back to thine own abode ! Why comest thou to me 
here ? Why present thy grinning face, thy chill and bloodless 
hand ? Why gleam upon me with those piercing, rebuking eyes ? 

In such cases there is no definite limit to what 
one may think, or state to himself as a means of 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 1 39 

enabling him more fully to realize the emotional 
words that are uttered. Full acquaintance with 
the circumstances and the characters, together 
with a vivid imagination and sympathy, will be 
the requisites for full utterance. 

Mild forms of this emotion appear in the Sacred 
Writings. 

Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received 
a little thereof. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when 
deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, 
which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before 
my face ; the hair of my flesh stood up : it stood still, but I could 
not discern the form thereof : an image was before mine eyes, 
there was silence and I heard a voice saying, " Shall mortal man 
be more just than God ? Shall a man be more pure than his 
maker ? "Job iv. 12-17. 

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves 
of the earth for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, 
when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. — Isa. ii. 19. 

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the 
Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong 
wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the 
Lord ; but the Lord was not in the wind : and after the wind an 
earthquake ; but the Lord was not in the earthquake : and after 
the earthquake a fire ; but the Lord was not in the fire : and after 
the fire a still, small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard it, 
that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out and stood in 
the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice un- 
to him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? — I Kings, xix. 
si, 13. 

It will be easy to add the commentatorial matter 
which shall make the mental expansion necessary 
to suitably give the emotion contained in these 
passages. 



140 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

6. Agitated or Tremulous Emotion. — As 

we have seen, this may be caused either by exu- 
berant joy, or by deep grief. This emotion will 
tend, usually, to express itself more fully in words. 
It will be less elliptical than some of the preceding 
forms ; hence there will be less occasion, usually, 
for making the paraphrase to reveal the feeling ; 
yet it will often need to be done. 

Observe, first, a few cases in which the ampli- 
fication has been made by the writer. 

Listen to the jocund Jaques ; you can almost 
hear the chuckle of his voice as he utters these 
words : 

Jaques. A fool, a fool ! I met a fool i' the forest, 
A motley fool ; a miserable world ! 
As I do live by food, I met a fool ; 
Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun, 
And railed on Lady Fortune in good terms, 
In good set terms, and yet a motley fool. 
"Good morrow, fool," quoth I. "No, sir," quoth he, 
" Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune." 
And then he drew a dial from his poke, 
And, looking on it, with lack-lustre eye, 
Says very wisely, " It is ten o'clock : 
Thus we may see," quoth he, " How the world wags ; 
'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine, 
And after one hour more 'twill be eleven ; 
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, 
And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot ; 
And thereby hangs a tale." When I did hear 
The motley fool thus moral on the time, 
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer, 
That fools should be so deep-contemplative, 
And I did laugh sans intermission 
An hour by his dial. O noble fool ! 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. 141 

A worthy fool ! Motley's the only wear. 

Duke S. What fool is this ? 

Jaq. O worthy fool ! One that hath been a courtier, 
And says, if ladies be but young and fair, 
They have the gift to know it : and in his brain, 
Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit 
After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd 
With observation, the which he vents 
In mangled forms. O that I were a fool ! 
I am ambitious for a motley coat. 

— As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7. 

Now in this passage it is quite evident that most 
of the words are simply Jacques' paraphrase upon 
the one key-word " fool." 

Many songs, and especially refrains of songs, 
contain this element. A musical setting only ex- 
pands the mirthful or tender element, which in 
reading gives occasion for this tremulous quality. 
This accounts also for the many repetitions of 
emotional expressions contained in songs. When 
read, these repetitions become tiresome ; but their 
combined effect, as grasped by the memory and 
imagination of the reader, may well be incorpo- 
rated into the few words that are spoken. 

In the following song there seem to be two 
elements — tenderness, and sadness amounting al- 
most to bitterness ; and a certain hilarity ap- 
proaching reckless jollity. The repetitions in the 
verses form a sort of expansive emotional para- 
phrase. 



142 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, 
Thou art not so unkind 

As man's ingratitude ; 
Thy tooth is not so keen, 
Because thou art not seen, 

Although thy breath be rude. 
Heigh-ho ! sing, heigh-ho ! unto the green holly : 
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly : 
Then, heigh-ho ! the holly ! 

This life is most jolly. 

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, 
That dost not bite so nigh 

As benefits forgot : 
Though thou the waters warp, 
Thy sting is not so sharp 
As friend remembered not. 
Heigh-ho ! sing, heigh-ho ! unto the green holly : 
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly : 
Then, heigh-ho ! the holly ! 
This life is most jolly. 

— As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7. 

" David's Lament for Absalom " by N. P. Willis, 
is an ingenious emotional expansion of a part of 
one verse in the Bible, 2 Sam. xviii. 33. 

Now upon this as a theme, the poet has woven 
considerations as to the natural beauty of the 
young man ; drawing these out into the graphic 
specifications of his " glorious eye," " clustering 
hair," "brow," and words which the voung man 
had spoken. Then are added subjective reflec- 
tions: "How could'st thou die ? " " I shall miss 
thee when I meet the other young men." " Es- 
pecially in my declining, feeble days, thou, my 
natural support wilt be wanting. How can I go 



EMOTIONAL PARAPHRASE. I43 

down the Dark Valley without thine arm to lean 
upon ? " " O, hard as it is to give thee up, I could 
bear all this, — bear all the pain and loneliness, the 
grief unspeakable — if I could only know thy sin 
was covered and thy soul was safe." 

Such reflections are natural and moderate ; they 
are by no means foisted upon the words of the 
text ; they are a partial unfolding of the thought 
contained in that verse. What sympathetic heart 
could fail to read in, silently, between the lines, 
still other tender, thrilling reflections, in addition 
to those which the poet has suggested. 

The sacredness of much of the noblest emotion 
may make it seem an obtrusive, unbecoming thing 
thus to write out an emotional paraphrase. The 
purpose is by no means to violate the feelings: 
quite the reverse. 

For practice, passages may at first be taken 
which can be treated so objectively as to avoid 
great enlistment of the reader's personal emotions, 
and through these, as a cold-blooded exercise, the 
mind may learn the process which, applied to 
deeper, more real, more personal, or sacred situa- 
tions, shall enable one to stir up within his own 
heart such emotions as will color and vitalize the 
words it is suitable to speak. 

In this way one may acquire a real emotional 
power in utterance, without any offensive exhibi- 
tion of his personal feelings. The emotionality in 
the utterance will be felt more in what is concealed 
than in what is revealed ; but there must first be 



144 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

something to conceal ; and this device of emotional 
paraphrase will, first of all, increase the real emo- 
tion, which is personal, and which is deeply, 
though unconsciously, treasured in the heart of the 
speaker. 

The purpose, in this part of the study, is, direct- 
ly to increase the receptive power of the reader. 
He must first receive and experience, before he 
can really communicate. An effective utterance 
of emotional passages can never be secured by 
merely vocalizing emotional words. Such me- 
chanical practice would surely result, either in an 
affected sentimentality, or in a revulsion and re- 
action of feeling. When once the reader has com- 
mand of the vocal media for expression, the vital 
thing — embracing nine-tenths of all the labor — 
is to deepen and vivify the impression of the thing 
to be said. In the matter of emotion, particularly, 
this will usually be done in silence ; but, if done 
with any effect, there must be some method of 
procedure ; and the foregoing hints at emotional 
paraphrasing are intended to suggest the best prac- 
tical way of accomplishing this purpose. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ENERGY. 

Here we have to do with the will. The expres- 
sional analysis will concern itself with different 
volitional conditions or attitudes ; all of these will 
be more or less dependent upon preceding or ac- 
companying emotional conditions, and these in 
turn upon the intellectual measurements of facts, 
truths, and relations. Thus the deliberative and 
discriminative elements in the thought will lead to 
the emotional ; the emotional will induce the vo- 
litional. 

In energy the will of the speaker bears upon the 
will of the listener, the object being to secure a 
certain attitude or action of the will in the person 
addressed. 

Subjectively, then, energy as a mood of utter- 
ance is the speaker's purpose to demand attention, 
to enforce his ideas, and to produce conviction. 
Objectively, it is the property in the utterance 
which accomplishes this. 

Energy may be : 

(i) General, pervading the entire passage or 
division, or 

(2) Special, appearing in particular words or 
phrases. 

In this chapter we shall study the special appli- 



I46 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

cations of energy, or the action of the will in 
different forms of volition. 

1. Abruptness. — (1) This, in its mildest form, 
is the mere promptness or animation which accom- 
panies explanatory or didactic utterance. In this 
form we have the weakest perceptible action of 
the will ; and that which is nearest to mere delib- 
eration. Even in passages which are predomi- 
nantly deliberative or discriminative there may 
yet be a percentage of energy, which may be 
recognized and classified. In order to be energetic, 
in this technical sense, there must be traceable a 
purpose to move the will. 

For example : 

This is the way, walk ye in it. 

It is obvious that this sentence may have for its 
prevailing purpose, explanation of the way ; or it 
may express a discrimination between this way 
and some other ; or it might even hint at emotion ; 
but even though one of these should be the pre- 
vailing purpose, there may be mingled with that 
the design to move upon the will. This consti- 
tutes the energetic element in the utterance. If 
the purpose is to arrest the attention, to give, as it 
were, a shock or sudden impulse, then the energy 
is of the form of abruptness. It may express : 

(2) Prompt decision; as, 

Leave me this instant. 

(3) Arbitrary command ; as, 

Down, slave, upon your knees and beg for mercy ! 



ENERGY. 147 

It may express an action of the will accom- 
panied by : 

(4) Surprise; as, 

Yet here, Laertes, aboard ! aboard ! for shame ! 

(5) Impatience ; as, 

Pooh ! You speak like a green girl. 

In this last case emotion far transcends energy, 
yet there is beneath the emotion the evident pur- 
pose to move the will. A better example of voli- 
tion prompted by impatience, is this : 

Away, slight man ! 

(6) Petulance, or uncontrollable anger; as, 

I an itching palm ! 
You know that you are Brutus that speak this 
Or, by the Gods, this speech were else your last. 

Many other cases might be found, but all would 
come under the generic idea of abruptness or sud- 
denness of volitional action. Its vocal exponent is 
initial stress ( > ) ; that is, a form of utterance in 
which the full impulse of the tone is felt at the be- 
ginning. It is not always explosive or violent ; it 
may be gently prompt. Quickness of touch is 
essential for expressing this element of suddenness. 
The degree of loudness is not important ; the tone 
may range all the way from very soft to very 
loud. The essential point to be observed is the 
sudden, unexpected impulse or stroke, which typi- 
fies the abrupt and instantaneous action of the 
mind. 



148 guide to rhetorical delivery. 

In gesture, the expression of abruptness will 
consist in quick pulse, especially of palm and finger, 
usually horizontal, front. We can scarcely exag- 
gerate the importance of securing flexibility, 
elasticity, and vigor in the hand itself. Strength 
of gesture depends much more upon the quality, 
as affected by the action of the hand, than upon 
the extent, produced by the swing of the arm. 

This form of energy is the weakest, not only as 
lying nearest to mere deliberation — volitionally, 
it is the weakest in this sense ; — it represents also 
a rather uncontrolled, ungoverned action of the 
will, prompted by sudden and unrestrained im- 
pulses ; it is childish, rather than manly. In this 
respect it is the opposite of the second form ; 
namely, 

2. Insistence. — This represents the self-con- 
trolled, the consciously powerful; it is the delibe- 
rative pressure, or bearing of one will upon an- 
other. Cases of it are : 

(i) Settled determination ; as, 

Come one, come all ; this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I. 
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you 
more than unto God, judge ye ; for we cannot but speak the 
things which we have seen and heard. — Acts iv. ig, 20. 

Here I stand ; God help me : I cannot do otherwise. — Luther. 
I appeal unto Caesar. — Acts xxv. n. 

(2) Dignified reproof ; as, 

You wronged yourself to write in such a case. — Julius Caesar. 
Thy money perish with thee. — Acts viii. 20. 






ENERGY. 149 

Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish. — Acts, xiii. 41. 

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God 
hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord 
and Christ. — Acts ii. 36. 

Akin to (2) would be an official statement, as of 
sentence, or condemnation. 

Make room, and let him stand before our face ! 
How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none ? 
Upon my power I may dismiss this court. 

And this notable conclusion of Edmund Burke's 
impeachment of Warren Hastings : * 

Therefore, it is with confidence that, ordered by the Commons 
of Great Britain, I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and 
misdemeanors. 

I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, 
whose national character he has dishonored. 

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, 
rights, and liberties he has subverted. 

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose pro- 
perty he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and 
desolate. 

I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has 
cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes. 

And I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those eternal 
laws of Justice which ought equally to pervade every age, condi- 
tion, rank, or situation in the world. 

(3) Authoritative utterance. 

Verily, verily I say unto you. 

Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 

Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God. 

He shall do this ; or else I do recant 
The sentence that I late pronounced here. 



150 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Without official authority, an utterance may- 
express so strong and settled conviction, and may so 
appeal to the listener by the weight of its own 
evident truth, that it amounts to authority. For 
example : 

Ah, gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a secret can 
be safe nowhere. The whole creation of God has neither nook 
nor corner where the guilty can bestow it and say it is safe. . . . 
... It must be confessed ; it will be confessed ; there is no 
refuge from confession but in suicide, and suicide is confession, 
— Webster. 

The vocal symbol of this form of energy is the 
final stress ( < ). It is a deliberate gathering up, a 
cumulation of force. Beginning moderately, it 
typifies the calm, assured attitude of a mind that 
is so confident in its position that it does not need 
to assert itself. The pressure typifies the resist- 
lessly gathering conviction ; the ending with full 
tone indicates the completeness of conviction. 
The final stress usually accompanies the falling 
slide. It bears downward as well as outward. It 
is conscious power, insisting upon acknowledged 
right. 

In action, this form of energy is expressed by 
slow preparation, increasing force, often descend- 
ing, front. As most of the words of a sentence 
serve to prepare the way for the one or two words 
which contain the heart of the assertion ; so most 
of the time occupied in the final stress gesture is 
in preparation for the " ictus" or stroke. Adapt 
carefully the preparation and ictus. Let the hand 
lead the voice. 



ENERGY. 151 

Take any dignified, impressive speech, such as 
that of Webster on the Union, or of Lincoln at 
the Dedication of Gettysburg : note the volitional 
conditions ; speak sentences in initial stress, or 
the abrupt mood ; then the same in final stress, 
the insistent mood ; and mark the changes in the 
effect. 

The difference between abruptness and insist- 
ence is well brought out in Julius Caesar, Act iv. 
Scene 3. Study the characters of Brutus and 
Cassius, the special situation, then the words of 
each ; note the various expressions of abruptness, 
and those of insistence, as growing out of the char- 
acters of the two men and their respective views 
of the situation. At first Cassius seems annoyed, 
irritated, exasperated ; in this mood he tends 
toward the form of abruptness. Brutus at the 
first seems collected, dignified, and inclined to re- 
prove Cassius ; he therefore tends to express him- 
self in the form of insistence, that of dignified 
reproof. In the course of the dialogue they seem 
to change places — Brutus becoming momentarily 
excited and abrupt, while Cassius, taking advan- 
tage of this change, assumes the dignified and 
defiant. At this turn the voices, like the words, 
assume respectively the opposite attitudes. 

3. Enlargement or Expansion with Pres- 
sure. — In this form we have more noticeable 
emotion mingled with the energy. It represents 
the uplift of ennobling thought, together with the 
sense of insistent or cumulative energy. It is 



152 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

adapted to the utterance of any sentiment that 
elevates and fills the soul, and at the same time 
seeks to impress and move another soul. Without 
this element of insistence, it would be simply emo- 
tional ; with this, it becomes a buoyant pressure, 
or an elevated impulse, originating in the speaker's 
conception of the noble, but seeking to make the 
listener realize the same and act upon it. It has 
its finest type in : 

(i) Encouragement, or stimulation to something 
good and noble. 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know 
that your labor is not in vain, in the Lord. — i Cor. xv. 58. 

Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. — 
Rev. iii. 11. 

Praise ye the Lord ; for it is good to sing praises unto our God ; 
for it is pleasant ; and praise is comely. 

The Lord doth build up Jerusalem : He gathereth together the 
outcasts of Israel. 

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. 

He telleth the number of the stars : he calleth them all by their 
names. — Ps. cxlvii. 1-4. 

Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is 
risen upon thee. 

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross dark- 
ness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory 
shall be seen upon thee. 

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
brightness of thy rising. 

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see : all they gather them- 
selves together, they come to thee : thy sons shall come from far, 
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. 



ENERGY. 153 

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall 
fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be 
converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come thee. — 
Isa. lx. 1-5. 

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State, 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great. — Longfellow. 

(2) Adoration. 

Ye living flowers that skirt th' eternal frost ! 
Ye wild goats, sporting 'round the eagle's nest ! 
Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm ! 
Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! 
Ye signs and wonders of the elements ! 
Utter forth " God ! " and fill the hills with praise ! 

Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills, 
Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven, 
Great hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky, 
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. — Coleridge. 
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts ! 
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord : 
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. 

Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest 
for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O 
Lord of Hosts, my King, and my God. — Ps. lxxxiv. 1-3. 

The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty ; the Lord is 
clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself : the 
world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. 

Thy throne is established of old : thou art from everlasting. 

The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up 
their voice ; the floods lift up their waves. 

The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, 
yea, than mighty waves of the sea. 

Thy testimonies are very sure : holiness becometh thine house, 
O Lord, forever. — Ps. xciii. 1-5. 



154 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

(3) Admiration, joined with the purpose to make 
others admire ; as : 

How beautiful she is ! how fair 

She lies within those arms, that press 

Her form with many a soft caress 

Of tenderness and watchful care. — Longfellow. 

He was a man, take him for all in all, 
I shall not look upon his like again. — Hamlet. 
This was the noblest Roman of them all. — Antony. 

(4) Joy or exultation, with the purpose to lead 
others to rejoice. 

Sing aloud unto God our strength : make a joyful noise unto 
the God of Jacob. 

Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp 
with the psaltery. 

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, 
on our solemn feast day. — Ps. lxxxi. 1-3. 

O, sing unto the Lord a new song : sing unto the Lord, all the 
earth. 

Sing unto the Lord, bless his name ; show forth his salvation 
from day to day. 

Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all 
people. 

For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised : he is to be 
feared above all gods. 

For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the 
heavens. 

Honor and majesty are before him : strength and beauty are in 
his sanctuary. — Ps. xcvi. 1-6. 

Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms 
be bright ! 

Ho ! burghers of St. Genevieve, keep watch and ward to- 
night ! 



ENERGY. 155 

For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised 

the slave, 
And mocked the counsel of the wise and the valor of the 

brave. 
Then glory to his holy name, from whom all glories are; 
And glory to our sovereign lord, King Henry of Navarre. 

— Macaulay. 

The vocal expression for this form of energy is 
the median stress (< >) expressing generically 
szvell, usually accompanied by a rise and fall in the 
pitch, similar to the falling circumflex, but not 
heard as inflection. 

Study the " swell " with pure tone, and allow 
the feelings to be elevated with the increase of 
tone. Expansibility and fullness of voice are the 
means for the expression of this property. 

The gesture analogous to median stress is a 
large motion, curving, often ascending oblique, 
with expanding, stretching palm ; frequently both 
hands. Practice gesture with swell on the vowels. 
Imagine you are stretching a band of India-rubber. 
Never allow the tone to become hard or rough. 
Full swell is compatible with full resonance. 

4. Prolonged Enforcement. — This occurs 
in cases of sustained and elevated energy, as in 
announcements of the most important kinds ; in 
military commands ; in all utterances of great 
dignity and weight, which do not seek to impress 
themselves upon the listener so much by insistence 
or cumulation as by the display of an even, tense, 
and elevated property, typifying the greatest pos- 
sible appreciation of nobility and resistless 
strength. 



156 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

And God spake all these words, saying, 

I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land 
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. — Ex. xx. 1, 2. 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ; 

Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 

In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man, 

As modest stillness, and humility : 

But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 

Then imitate the action of the tiger ; 

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage : 

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 

Let it pry through the portage of the head, 

Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it, 

As fearfully as doth a galled rock 

erhang and jutty his confounded base, 
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide ; 

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 

To his full height ! — On, on, you noblest English, 

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof ! — 

Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders, 

Have in these parts from morn till even fought, 

And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument. 

Dishonour not your mothers ; now attest 

That those whom you call fathers did beget you ! 

Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 

And teach them how to war ! — and you, good yeomen, 

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 

The mettle of your pasture ; let us swear 

That you are worth your breeding : which I doubt not ; 

For there is none of you so mean and base, 

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 

1 see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot ; 
Follow your spirit : and, upon this charge, 

Cry — God for Harry ! England ! and Saint George ! 
— King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 1. 



ENERGY. 157 

The type of this form of energy is the thorough 

stress, ( ) expressing, generically, sustained 

force. It is approximately equal throughout the 
phrase or passage so emphasized. This quality of 
force will tend to produce also monotony of inflec- 
tion ; both together will give the stateliness, the 
staid and solid effect which this type of energy re- 
quires. The tone is to be prepared by first sing- 
ing and chanting with full voice, then practicing 
passages with the calling tone, sustaining the force 
as nearly equal as possible throughout the passage. 

Prolonged or repeated gesture, oblique, horizon- 
tal or ascending. Full extension of arm will usu- 
ally be suitable, accompanying the thorough stress. 

5. Violence. — This is a perturbed, shocked 
condition. The will acts in a more or less feeble 
way, under the conflicting emotions of suddenness 
and insistence. There is an impulse toward ab- 
ruptness, but not simply the abruptness of surprise, 
petulance, or uncontrolled feeling ; but rather the 
abruptness of deep and tumultuous passion, min- 
gled with the sense of insistence or weight. It is 
found in strong natures under powerful emotions 
which they are able only in part to control. 

Find examples of this in the " Closet Scene " of 
Hamlet, Act iii. Scene 4 ; and in Julius Caesar, 
Act i. Scene 1. 

The form of vocal energy expressing this mood 
is called compound stress (><). It expresses 
generically, a double shock. This tone can scarcely 
be given with the voice alone. It must be prac- 



158 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

ticed with gesture, which will frequently be given 
with clenched fist or strong pulse of palm and 
fingers, frequently with repeated stroke, or shake. 

In studying energy it is vital to observe two 
things, and in their proper order : First, Try to 
measure the kind and degree of volition — note 
carefully the attitude of the speaker's will at the 
moment of utterance, as bearing upon the will of 
the addressed. Do not be content with simply 
saying, " There is energy demanded here "; see 
What Kind of energy. Second, Learn carefully 
and practically each kind of stress ; train the voice 
to these different apportionments of power, until 
the vocal symbol instantly and instinctively adapts 
itself to your mind's conception of the variety of 
energy required. 

Practice verifying the significance of these dif- 
ferent types of energy by listening critically to 
voices in conversation and in public discourse. 

Do not confuse stress with inflection ; practically 
they may unite — scientifically we are to sepa- 
rate them, and in the drill stage they must be 
thought of as distinct. 

Practice vowels and numerals in all forms of 
stress, always associating the rhetorical signifi- 
cance, and mentally think some sentence requiring 
different kinds of stress ; then take actual sen- 
tences, speak them with different kinds of stress, 
and note the differences in significance. 

Do not overdo the matter of stress. Like all 
vital elements in expression it must be used mode- 



ENERGY. 159 

rately in order to be effective. Never allow mere 
impulse to decide the form or degree of stress. 
Effective utterance is always dominated by the 
intelligence and the will. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 

As in other cases this will consist either in : 

(i) Stating circumstances, facts and considera- 
tions which shall show the reasons for the particu- 
lar form of energy employed ; and which will be 
chiefly objective ; or, in 

(2) Interlining or interwording such intensify- 
ing phrases, clauses or sentences as shall serve to 
express more fully the degree of intensity and the 
particular form which the energy takes, as abrupt- 
ness, insistence, expansion, prolonged enforcement, 
or violence. This latter will be more subjective 
in its nature. In either case it is understood, of 
course, that the expansion is only mental. Forms 
of energy require conciseness in their verbal 
expression more than do the other moods ; but in 
proportion to the condensation in the phraseology 
must be the expansion in the thinking and feeling 
which prompt these forms of energy. In other 
words, there is, usually, in energetic expression, an 
inverse ratio between the words uttered and the 
thought, feeling, and volition which those words 
express. Some cases are found in which the am- 
plification is actually made in words. It will then 
take the form of exclamation and repetition chiefly ; 



THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. l6l 

frequently also that of figurative interrogation. 
For example : 

Flavins. Hence ! home, you idle creatures, get you home ! 
Is this a holiday ? What ! know you not, 
Being mechanical, you ought not walk 
Upon a labouring-day without the sign 
Of your profession ? — Speak, what trade art thou ? 

Marullus. Wherefore rejoice ? What conquest brings he 
home? 
What tributaries follow him to Rome, 
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels ? 
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things ! 
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 
Knew you not Pompey ? Many a time and oft 
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements, 
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops, 
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 
The live-long day with patient expectation, 
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome : 
And, when you saw his chariot but appear. 
Have you not made an universal shout, 
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, 
To hear the replication of your sounds 
Made in her concave shores ? 
And do you now put on your best attire ? 
And do you now cull out a holiday ? 
And do you now strew flowers in his way 
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? 
Be gone ! 

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague 
That needs must light on this ingratitude. 

— Julius Caesar, Act i. Sc. I. 

In the above examples it is obvious that a self- 
controlled energy would have contented itself 



l62 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

with many less words than are here employed. 
The irate tribunes allow themselves to think aloud 
a. good deal ; hence the repetition, the constant in- 
terrogation (figurative), the added explanations, 
and the highly wrought imaginative language. 
Contrast with this the following self-contained but 
pregnantly energetic expressions of Caesar : 

What touches us ourself shall be last served. 

Caesar did never wrong but with just cause, 
Nor without cause will be be satisfied. 

Doth not Brutus bootless kneel ? 

Any one of these brief expressions might be so 
expanded as to show many thoughts back in the 
mind of Caesar, and many movements of his voli- 
tion, which the brief words powerfully imply. To 
expand his short, terse expressions so as to reveal 
the thoughts that prompt them, the feelings that 
color, them and the volitional state which intensi- 
fies them — this would be to make an objective 
energetic paraphrase upon them. Let us attempt 
it. Take the first expression : 

What touches us or self shall be last served. 

Shall the great Caesar, who has sought the interests of Rome 
more than his own ; shall he who has carried its arms and con- 
quests into Britain and the East, regardless ever of his personal 
convenience, comfort or safety — shall he, now, while public busi- 
ness waits him at the Senate, stop to consider matters of merely 
personal character? Understand that Caesar is not such a man. 
Do not impose such hindrances between me and the business 
waiting for me. Do not annoy me ! leave ! 

Look at the second expression. We might 



THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 163 

naturally interline some such considerations as 
these : 

Search my record. You will find that no one has been ill- 
treated by me. Understand, I fear not to meet all my public acts. 
I am confident in the sense of justice. You can neither intimi- 
date nor soften me by any implications of injustice or tyranny. 
Know, then, that nothing shall content me but sufficient evidence. 
The evidence is not at hand. Cease, then, to press me ; you 
can never move me ; I bid you withdraw. 

Look a moment at the third : 

Doth not Brutus bootless kneel ? 

If there be any man in Rome who could move me by supplica- 
tion, it were the noble Brutus ; but see, he kneels and I spurn 
even him as I would an impudent child. Think not then, that any 
other need approach me. 

See how the determination in the first of these 
lines by Bryant is expanded in the lines that follow. 

Truth crushed to earth, shall rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 
But error, wounded, writhes with pain, 
And dies among his worshippers. » 

The expansion is here given, first, in the form of 
a reason : — God is on her side, the Omnipotent 
One, the One determined upon the victory of the 
right, the One whose purposes never change, 
whom nothing can thwart ; He shall avouch her 
cause. 

And then truth as opposed to error is brought 
out by the contrast in the third and fourth lines : 

While truth is thus supported, error, with no moral basis, lan- 
guishes in its torture, and suffers a common fate with those who 
blindly follow it. 



ID4 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Our prose paraphrase of the last three lines of the 
stanza, like those lines themselves, forms simply 
an expansion, or mental amplification, of the sense 
of resistless power and unshaken will, expressed 
in the first line. Abundant examples of such en- 
ergetic expansion may be found in the orations of 
Cicero, especially in those against Cataline. 

For purposes of drill, it will be well to take up, 
separately, the different forms of energy as given 
in chapter eight. 

Find or make typical examples of abruptness, 
expansion, insistence, prolonged enforcement and 
violence. Write in between the lines and between 
the words such amplifying matter as you think 
will legitimately express the accompanying 
thoughts and impulses of the speaker's mind, and 
thus give force and point to these different types 
of energy. 

It will be sufficient here to give a very few 
examples of each. 

The following might illustrate Abruptness, 
paraphrased by repetition of synonyms : 

leave ! move ! detest, abhor, loathe, abomi- 

Go I hate and I 

nate, 

despise thee ! 
The same sentence may be paraphrased by 
addition of intensifying adverbs, thus : 

at once, instantly, bitterly, intensely unspeak- 

Go I . hate and I 

ably, immeasurably 

despise thee. 



THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 1 65 

For Insistence, that of settled conviction and 
determination, take the following short sentence 
from Patrick Henry : 

The war is inevitable. 

which I have thus predicted one that no power 

The war is 

on earth can possibly avert, it is 

inevitable. 
Or thus : 

I solemnly believe as surely as the forces of 

The war is 

nature obey their fixed laws 

inevitable. 

For an example of Expansion with Pressure, 

expressing the idea of encouragement, — a buoy- 
ant bearing up of the emotion, while bearing out 
upon the will, — take the following: 

Oh fear not in a world like this, 

And thoushalt know ere long, 
Know how sublime a thing it is, 

To suffer and be strong. — Longfellow. 

by all that is noble and worthy, I entreat you there 

Oh fear not 

is no possible reason why you should be dismayed ; everything is 
on the side of him who is right : banish all dread and hesitation; 
launch out fearlessly, courageously, buoyantly, assuredly 

in a world 

in which, to be sure, the forces of good and evil seem 

like this 

to be contending, with the odds sometimes against the good, and 
yet with the assurance as firm as the eternal truth itself, that right 
shall ultimately prevail surely, absolutely 

And thou shalt 



1 66 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

not by faith or trust alone, but by personal and positive 

know, 

experience as soon as the present turmoil is over, and 

ere long, 

things stand out in their just and eternal relations by a 

know 

blessed and triumphant assurance how infinitely 

how sublime 

above the petty, warped, and darkened aims of time-serving souls, 
how lofty, how noble, how infinitely glorious 

a thing it is To 

whatever annoyance, disappointment, pain, or loss you 

suffer 

may meet for the little moment of this life in spite of all this, 

and 

nay, because of these things ; patiently, courageously, hopefully, 
heroically to 

be strong. 

In connection with the above paraphrase it is 
worth while to repeat, that to stop and say in 
words what appears in the interlineations, would of 
course be a wretched distortion of the form of Long- 
fellow's thought. Both the form and the full sense 
may, however, be preserved by thinking such inter- 
lineations while saying the words of the stanza. The 
expanding thoughts which are interlined will, of 
course, tend to increase slightly the length of the 
pauses and to enhance, quite perceptibly, the quan- 
tity and volume of the vowels. 

Such work must be studied both mentally and 
physically. It will accomplish little to prepare 
the mind by comment and expansion, unless the 
voice learn to make the subtile and minute repre- 



THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 1 67 

sentations of such mental expansions. On the 
other hand, the voice alone might be trained 
mechanically to produce the needed pauses and 
enlargement of quantity ; and yet secure nothing 
but hesitation and drawling. The combination of 
mental with vocal measurements cannot fail to 
produce vivid, intense, and rational utterance; 
this is expression. 

The sense of Prolonged Enforcement, in its 

more rhetorical type, may be well illustrated by 
the even, sustained dignity of such passages as the 
following from the Psalms : 

The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his king- 
dom ruleth over all. 

the Eternal One, the Self Existent ; He who is the 

The Lord 

same yesterday, to-day, and forever from all 

hath prepared 

eternity, or ever the earth was, by his established decrees, which 
shall know no change while time endures eternal and 

his throne 

immutable as himself where he dwelleth, whence 

in the heavens 

his commands go forth to all the universe thus 

and his kingdom 

established on a sure foundation, unshaken, immovable, destined 
completely to triumph over all opposing forces with eter- 

ruleth 

nal power and grace both those who gladly accept his domin- 

over 

ion and those who weakly try to resist his power : — all alike shall 
feel and own the eternal supremacy of the righteous King. 

all. 



1 68 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

In this form of energy there is an exalted, steady, 
resistless movement ; the vocal expression of 
which must, of course, be the thorough stress. It 
is the noblest form of energy, and belongs to 
thoughts that have the greatest elevation, the full- 
est sweep. To exaggerate this, or to degrade it 
by employing it upon undignified thoughts, is an 
elocutionary trick which no genuine reader or 
speaker will ever employ. On the other hand, the 
conscientious interpreter must not, from a fear of 
affectation, hesitate to employ the natural means 
of expression when demanded. For a speaker to 
assume to be so unmoved that he can coolly and 
intellectually mention a fact or a truth of supreme 
moment, is itself an affectation of the weakest and 
unworthiest kind. In these fuller and nobler 
forms of energy there must, of course, be the pre- 
vious intellectual measurement of the situation ; 
and then will follow the emotional uplift — the 
elevated attitude of the whole soul — which shall 
thus justify the strong volitional condition. 

Without such antecedent preparation of both 
intellect and sensibility, the assumed energy would 
become nothing but rant and cant. Such abuse, 
and such partial, unprepared uses of energy are 
often witnessed both in the pulpit and upon the 
platform, particularly in " stump speeches." While 
possessing a specious force, they fall far short of 
intellectual or moral power. The will must, in- 
deed, dominate ; but its domination must be both 
prepared and justified ; and such justification will 



THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 1 69 

be most reasonably secured by a thoughtful para- 
phrase. 

It remains only to illustrate the energetic form 
of Violence or Perturbation. Here, evidently, 
the emotion will be more apparent, and will form 
a larger percentage of the expressional power. 
The interlineations will be such as to reveal a dis- 
turbed, violently moved, shocked condition of the 
sensibilities, together with an impetuous, unre- 
strained, and yet powerful, insistent attitude of the 
volition. Let this attitude be illustrated by the 
following passage from the " Vision of Don Rode- 
rick," by Scott : 



But conscience here, as if in high disdain, 
Sent to the monarch's cheek the blood — 
He stayed his speech abrupt — and up the prelate stood. 

" O, harden'd offspring of an iron race ! 

What of thy crimes, Don Roderick, shall I say ? 
What alms, or prayers, or penance can efface 

Murder's dark spot, wash treason's stain away ! 

For the fouljravisher how shall I pray, 
Who, scarce repentant, makes his crime his boast? 

How hope almighty vengeance shall delay, 
Unless in mercy to yon Christian host, 

He spare the shepherd lest the guiltless sheep be lost." 

Observe that the first three lines quoted hint at 
the pantomimic condition and expression, which 
justifies the following speech. The tense, 
disturbed, abrupt action will, of course, be ex- 
pressed in the paraphrase by a tense, exclamatory 
utterance, interjected between the words of the 
text, thus : 



170 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY, 

cruel, conscienceless, defiant, brazen, 

O hardened offspring 

hard-hearted, relentless, overbearing 

of an iron race ! 

tell me, speak, answer horrible, revolt- 

What of thy crimes 

ing, blood-curdling who can name them, who 

Don Roderick, 

can describe them ? what tongue can portray them ? 

shall I say ? 
What alms, or prayers, or penance [ here the am- 
plification by repetition seems to be done for us] 

the horrible blot, the das- 

can efface murder's dark spot, 

tardly mark, revealing your foul soul in its hideous uncleanness, 
ay, treason, blackest crime, beyond murder, 

wash treason's 

most impious ! most reckless ! most defiant ! 

stain away ! 

how can I bring myself, how can you 

For the foul ravisher, 

expect me ? Oh, why should any man be called to intercede for 
such ! 

how shall I pray ? 

Examples of all forms of energy may be found 
in abundance in such passages as are indicated in 
this and the preceding chapter. Abruptness in its 
different varieties will require different kinds of 
paraphrase. For example, when we have only 
the milder form of energy, in which the will seeks 
to arrest the attention for purposes of explanation 
or instruction, the paraphrase will often seem to be 
as much deliberative as energetic ; though it may 



THE ENERGETIC PARAPHRASE. 171 

express the volitional action of the speaker's 
mind. For the more decided forms of abruptness, 
as those arising from surprise, prompt decision, 
impatience, petulance, uncontrolled anger, etc., 
the paraphrase will become more ejaculatory, and 
will reveal more disturbance of the emotion, and 
more decided action of the will. 

The form of expansion, or enlargement with 
pressure, will be justified by a paraphrase reveal- 
ing chiefly the emotional condition, which forms a 
part of this type of energy ; but it will reveal also 
the purpose to move the will of the listener. In 
the case of insistence, repetition may frequently 
be demanded ; also, such interlined sentences as 
shall reveal more fully settled determination or 
the reserved sense of dignity and authority. 

In prolonged enforcement, as alread}^ illustrated, 
the paraphrase may be such as to show exalted, 
uninterrupted, irresistible power. 

In the case of violence, ejaculations, and short 
nervous expressions will constitute the only help- 
ful form of paraphrase. 

Whatever particular form of volition is studied, 
the utterance must be justified to the reader or 
speaker by such mental expansion, comment, and 
restatement as could be expressed in writing. 
This will, indeed, fall short of complete expression, 
and is intended to be only an aid to such ex- 
pression. 

The things to be kept constantly in mind are 
these : First, that volitional attitudes and actions 



172 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

must be justified by their relations to the intellect- 
ual and emotional conditions which introduce 
them ; and, second, that they may be mentally 
intensified by such repetitions and additional ex- 
pressions as, if fully written, would quite overload 
the verbal expression. 



CHAPTER X. 

GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 

Thus far we have considered the more minute 
and particular applications of the properties of 
tone to special purposes in the utterance. In one 
view, the study cannot be too minute, even though 
it become microscopic ; because the examination 
into the definite purpose and the precise relations 
of thought must be the basis for any refined and 
expressive utterance. Nevertheless, many people 
can judge only in a more general way ; and even 
a critic must take note, first, of the broader princi- 
ples and properties of utterance. 

The particular applications of tone properties, 
as quantity, inflection, stress, serve to single out 
some word or phrase as the center of the expres- 
sion and that which gives character to the utter- 
ance. All the general applications, as movement, 
key, melody, general force, and general quality, 
give character to the thought as a zvhole, and 
not with special reference to any one central word 
or phrase. The general both affects the particu- 
lar and is affected by it. 

The general should always lead, and subordinate 
to itself the particular. Thus, the general force is 
determined by the consideration of the kind of 
energy implied in the passage as a whole ; when 
thus determined, " particular" force, or " stress," 



174 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

will naturally follow, applying itself to the central 
words in each assertion or appeal. The emphasis 
thus secured will not have the undue pointedness 
or jerky effect sometimes heard in young speakers. 

It was necessary at first to study * force in the 
form of stress, to reach a specific idea of the differ- 
ent kinds of energy. So inflection is more easily 
understood than melody ; and pause and quantity, 
than movement. These different elements, once 
apprehended in connection with the smaller divi- 
sions of speech, become a guide and illustration to 
the larger divisions, which in turn react upon the 
particular elements. We study, as " general pro- 
perties " : movement, rhythm, melody, force, and 
quality. 

Movement. — Movement, as an element of ex- 
pression, is distinguished from pause and quantity 
mainly by this feature of general application ; 
that is, while pause or quantity is heard upon a 
single element of a sentence, and for the uses of 
that element, except in case of the oratorical pause, 
general movement, or rate, is heard as affecting the 
whole passage, division, or discourse. 

Movement in speech corresponds to tempo in 
music, pauses to rests, quantity, either to notes 
relatively long, or to " holds." The movement, or 
tempo, gives the general effect of the thought as a 
whole. The slower movements express more of 
thoughtfulness, seriousness, solemnity, tenderness, 
doubt or misgiving, in the mind of the speaker ; 
and adapt themselves to the description of scenes, 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 75 

incidents, etc., that are slow-moving or grave. In 
short, slow movement means gravity. 

The faster movements express, subjectively : 
triviality, lightness, merriment, cheer, boldness, 
determination, intensity ( when not seriously as- 
sertive); and objectively, they fit the description 
of scenes or events which move rapidly. In a 
word, fast rate means either lightness or intensity. 
It will be seen that rate helps to express either of 
the four principal moods of utterance. 

(1) Deliberation, in its various offices, is recog- 
nized chiefly by this element, the different kinds 
of deliberative matter being marked mainly by 
differences in movement. The relation between 
movement and the deliberative element has been 
developed in Chapter II. 

(2) Movement also assists discrimination in the 
broader sense, as marking the difference between 
one general scene or thought and its opposite, or 
between a general negative idea and its antithetic 
positive. Negatives, as being lighter, usually 
move faster ; assumed matter, faster than asserted. 
This broader discrimination is not wholly depend- 
ent upon inflection. Slides and circumflexes in- 
dicate discrimination between words or phrases ; 
by the same natural principle of opposition, the 
differences between one general thought and an- 
other, occupying each a paragraph or division of 
the discourse, must be expressed by those ele- 
ments which are naturally adapted to the use of 
the larger divisions of language , and one of these 
elements is Rate, or Movement. 



176 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

(3) So, too, the different kinds of energy, as ap- 
plied to whole passages, will affect the rate, and 
be affected by it. Stress and movement will react 
mutually. For example : abruptness will generally 
tend to rapidity ; insistence or enlargement, to 
slowness. 

(4) Again, emotion will most sensibly affect the 
rate. Whatever awakens feelings of cheerfulness 
and merriment, or of intensity and rage, will 
quicken the rate, while that which deepens, en- 
nobles or oppresses the feelings will show itself in 
slower movement. 

Examples. — Find or compose passages illus- 
trating effects of movement ; especially such as 
express discrimination, emotion, or energy, by 
changes in rate. 

Rhythm. — Nothing is more vital to speech 
than the due proportion of light and shade, or of 
accented and unaccented elements in sentences. 
Regular recurrence of accent produces poetic 
rhythm or scansion. It is not our purpose here to 
go into the minutiae of this subject. The student 
is advised at this point to review Prosody. We 
are to study here prose rhythms, which only ap- 
proximate the regularity of scansion, and which 
may even seem to present no real resemblance to 
it. That there is, however, a more or less regular 
flow of impulses, is proved by the fact that we 
find real difficulty in either speaking or hearing a 
succession of words in which this property is 
wanting. 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 77 

In calling attention to this matter of prose 
rhythm, there is no intention to induce a droning 
or " sing-song" style of reading or speaking; 
neither is it the object to produce an exaggerated 
or a mechanical measurement of accents ; exactly 
the opposite effects result from a due regard for 
the rhythm of the language. 

As an illustration and a basis, let us take the 
more common and important poetic rhythms. 

(1) Trochaic. Here the foot consists of an ac- 
cented syllable followed by an unaccented, as, 

Sing, O I Song of | Hiawatha, 

Of the I happy | days that | followed. 

Know, my | soul, thy | full sal | vation. 

(2) The iambic verse. Here the foot consists of 
a short syllable, or unaccented, followed by a long 
or accented, as : 

The mel | anchol j y days | are come, 
The sad | dest of | the year. — Bryant. 

(3) The dactylic verse ; the foot consisting of 
an accented syllable followed by two unaccented 
syllables, giving a gliding, and often a somewhat 
tripping movement, as : 

Clear was the | heaven and | blue, |j and | May with her 
cap crown'd with | roses — Longfellow. 

(4) The anapaestic verse, in which the foot con- 
sists of two unaccented syllables followed by an 
accented. 

The Assyr | ian came down | like a wolf | on the fold, 
And his co | horts were gleam | ing with pur | pie and gold. 

— Byron. 
13 



178 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

(5) The amphibrachic. Each foot here consists 
of an unaccented, an accented, and another unac- 
cented syllable ; or, short, long, short. 

The Lord is | my shepherd, | no want shall | I know. 

(6) Spondaic. Here both syllables of the foot 
are accented and are approximately equal in their 
volume and force. Such feet come in usually as 
exceptions, and for special emphasis, as : 

And the wind and the brooklet 

Murmured | gladness and | peace — God's \ peace with | lips 
rosy I tinted. — Longfellow . 

Now it will be observed that the significance of 
these different kinds of metre or verse, lies deeper 
than the mere form. It is not simply a question 
of symmetry, or agreeable succession in the collo- 
cation of syllables. There is in each kind of 
metre a certain spirit and expressiveness. Thus 
the trochaic gives more of promptness, incisive- 
ness, spring and boldness than does the iambic. 
The trochaic is better suited, therefore, to the 
utterance of the cheerful, the buoyant, the abrupt ; 
it is somewhat analogous to the initial stress. 
The iambic, beginning light and ending heavy, is 
quite like the final stress ; and is more insistent in 
its nature ; it becomes, therefore, the natural ex- 
pression of the more serious and grave sentiments. 
The trisyllabic kinds of verse give, in their nature, 
more of the gliding or springing effect. This is 
due, primarily, to the fact that each foot has twice 
as much light sound as heavy. There is a certain 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 79 

elastic rebound upon the unaccented syllables. 
This is more particularly noticeable in the dactylic 
measure. The amphibrach has a sort of rhythmic 
surge, or plunge, or dash, which fits it for many 
bold measures like that of Lochinvar, by Scott. 

O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west, 
Through all the wide border his steed is the best. 

Or this, from Robert Browning : 

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and he, 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three. 

The anapaestic will have a happy combination 
of full or buoyant flow or of a broader and more 
dignified sweep, together with a certain insistence 
and weight. This is well illustrated in the De- 
struction of Sennacherib, by Byron; for example, 
this passage : 

For the Angel of Death spread his wings o'er the blast, 
And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed. 

Suppose now these two lines were recon- 
structed so as to present essentially the same pic- 
ture, but in iambic verse. We should still retain 
something of the insistence ; but, by removing one 
of the short syllables, we have diminished the 
breadth and dignitv of the verse. We have taken 
out its majesty and sweep. Try it, thus : 

The Angel, Death, came on the blast, 
And touched the face of foes he passed. 

A comparison of the two will show that it is not 
simply, nor mainly, the less complete logical or 
grammatical, nor even pictorial properties, in 



180 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

which the iambic form is inferior to the anapaest- 
ic. The strength and the nobleness of the ana- 
paestic movement itself, with its full and flowing, 
and far-reaching energy, is the essential, the vital 
element in Byron's magnificent stanzas. 

Study of Prose Rhythms. — The same ele- 
ment of effectiveness which we feel in the rhythm 
of poetry, becomes, in a modified form, a vital 
element in expressive prose. There is not, of 
course, the regularity of verse, but there is an 
approximation to it in the proportion and arrange- 
ment of accents. 

After regular rhyming stanzas, which most 
clearly reveal the rhythm, take blank verse, like 
that of Shakespeare or Milton ; and note the effects 
of the rhythm. A displaced accent or an imperfect 
line will cheapen and almost destroy the effect in 
many places ; while in many lines change of 
rhythm, by substituting one foot for another, not 
only gives pleasing variety in the music of the 
verse, but often suggests a distinct rhetorical sig- 
nificance, which could scarcely be so delicately or 
so economically conveyed in any other way. 

Next take prose passages that are specially 
rhythmical, those which are semi-poetic being the 
best at this stage ; divide them into feet approxi- 
mately ; that is, separate, as in scanning, the 
groups of syllables which cluster about every 
accented syllable ; not expecting, of course, to find 
perfect uniformity, and allowing for a compromise 
between the ideal rhythmic flow and the logical 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. l8l 

requirements of the grammatical and rhetorical 
groupings. Striking resemblances will be found 
between the passages in such prose selections and 
the kinds of verse which they most resemble. The 
more incisive and promptly energetic passages, as 
in explanatory and didactic matter, and in surprise, 
impatience, prompt decision — all that would nat- 
urally take the initial stress, — will be found to 
resemble strongly the trochaic verse. More 
grave and insistent passages, those expressing 
settled determination, deep conviction, dignity, 
authority and the like — such as will best be ren- 
dered in final stress, — will reveal a noticeable 
resemblance to the iambic verse. The more glid- 
ing will resemble some one of the trisyllabic 
verses ; and the most weighty of all, occurring in 
specially emphatic spots, will often be tike spon- 
dees in a poetic line. 

In general, we may say, the dissyllabic group- 
ings in prose are more intellectual or more simply 
and directly volitional ; while the trisyllabic are 
primarily emotional. There is in the three-syllable 
rhythms an agreeable flow, which may mean con- 
ciliation, cheerful animation, merriment, buoyancy, 
or the stronger emotions awakened by the sense 
of nobility and grandeur. 

Take the following sentences in Hamlet's advice 
to the players, Hamlet Act iii. Scene 2 : 

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you. 



1 82 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

So far the rhythm is of the incisive, initial-stress 
type, similar to the trochaic verse. 

Trippingly on the tongue, 

gives us almost the equivalent of two dactylic 
feet ; and the reason is obvious. The sound mea- 
sures the sense, giving a gliding and easy flow. 

But if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief 
the town crier spoke my lines. 

This is, for the most part, earnest, somewhat 
insistent. It is the final-stress mood, and is similar 
to the iambic verse. In the last words, 

The town crier spoke my lines, 

we have an approach to the spondee, which gives 
a climax of intensity and earnestness. 

Notice the abruptness of impatience in these 
expressive words : 

O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated 
fellow tear a passion to tatters ! 

Here it is evident that the effect does not de- 
pend wholly upon the words, with their sharp, 
biting consonants, but largely upon the rhythm. 
And observe how the accent and the rhythm 
change in the following words : 

To very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings. 

Here again we have the iambic, the insistent. 

The remainder of this remarkable speech may 
be analyzed in a similar way ; and it will be found 
that these rhythmic elements here characterized 
as abrupt, insistent, gliding, and weighty, will quite 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 83 

nicely measure the changing moods in the utter- 
ance. 

Other favorable prose passages for analysis of 
rhythm are such as the following : Webster's ora- 
tion at the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument, 
the celebrated peroration of his speech on the 
Union, many passages from Everett, as, for exam- 
ple, his lecture on Washington, the oration on the 
First Settlement of New England, his eulogy 
on Lafayette ; and many others. Almost every ora- 
tor who has spoken with effect has given models 
in this element of rhythm. Nor is it confined to 
oratory. Specimens may be found throughout 
the works of such masters of prose style as 
Dickens, Irving, Hawthorne, George Eliot, Charles 
Kingsley, Macaulay, and Carlyle. It will be help- 
ful to take passages that are especially fine or 
strong in their rhythm, and try to paraphrase them 
into forms having different rhythmic character. 
It will generally be found that there is a close con- 
nection between the rhythmic and the logical 
properties ; the body answers to the soul. 

Keys and Melody. — Melody is a somewhat 
rhythmical succession of tones arranged in agree- 
able and expressive intervals of pitch. Two elements, 
thus, enter into melody — time and pitch. The 
element of time is seen in measure, or succession 
of accents, and in rate, or movement. 

The element of pitch is seen in intervals, or rela- 
tive distances of tones from each other in the 
scale, and in the key or keys employed. The time 



1 84 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

element has been considered under " pause," 
"quantity," " movement," and " rhythm." We 
now consider the matters of key and interval. 

Keys. — (i) High keys usually give brightness, 
animation, vivacity, triviality ; or excitement, in- 
tensity, eagerness. They are naturally associated 
with rapid movement. Example : 

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest and youthful jollity. — Milton. 

(2) Medium keys belong to the expression of 
the commonplace — of that which is not specially 
emphatic. They naturally fit a medium rate, and 
are used in the great bulk of conversational and 
oratorical matter. Example : 

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. — St. 
John. 

(3) Low keys express gravity, seriousness, 
pathos, and certain forms of intensity, as, for ex- 
ample, strong determination. These almost of 
necessity take a slow movement, as the vocal 
organs cannot act with great rapidity in the lower 
tones. Example : 

But who may abide the day of his coming ? — Malachi. 

Keys of Different Voices. — Male voices will, 
on the average, give about D ( middle of Bass staff ), 
as the dominant tone of their medium key ; female 
voices nearly an octave higher. These tones are, 
respectively, the best for general practice. The 
male voice will be in the " lower chest " action or 
register ; the female, in the " upper chest." There 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 85 

is less difference as to pitch in speaking tones 
between high and low voices than is often sup- 
posed. The difference is more in fulness — the 
bass and alto voices having deeper, larger vibra- 
tions in the lower tones. Tenors may average F 
where basses would give D ; sopranos D, where 
altos would give B. The dominant tone of the 
medium key should leave room for a full and 
strong descending fifth without forcing the lower 
note of the interval. Every voice should have 
control of at least one octave and a half of reso- 
nant tones. Most voices can use two octaves or 
more. 

Give examples of passages requiring different 
keys ; according to the above principles, (1), (2), (3). 

As to Intervals in Melody. — (i) Small dia- 
tonic intervals give the commonplace, unimpas- 
sioned, conversational. The voice will move 
mostly by seconds and thirds ; except in direct 
interrogation and in positive affirmation, where it 
will give a fifth, ascending or descending. (2) 
Larger intervals give boldness or hilarity, like 
free, large movements of the hand. Often an 
octave, or even more, may be traversed. (3) Chro- 
matic intervals give intensity, either of irritation 
and rage ; or of pity, pathos, humility, etc. (4) Mi- 
nors give sadness, drooping, depression, or inten- 
sity. (5) Unusual intervals ( for example, the aug- 
mented fourth, the sixth, or the tenth) give unex- 
pected effects. (5) Discrete intervals give more of 



1 86 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

boldness or merriment ; concrete, more of gravity 
or pathos. 

Intervals and melody mutually react ; forming 
ascending, descending, or composite melodies, ac- 
cording to prevalence of rising or falling slides or 
of circumflexes. These are sometimes called 
"sweeps." 

Remarks. — i. Melody gives discrimination in the broader sense. 
2. It also gives emotion in general. 3. Combined with force it 
greatly assists energy. 4. Variety of key and of interval is 
required both for complete expression of varying thoughts, and 
for physical relief to voice and ear. Cultivate, therefore, all the 
available tones of your voice and carefully avoid ruts in melody. 
5. Song has many valuable hints for speaking melody. 

Quality. — Quality is naturally "general " rather 
than " particular," since feeling is evoked by the 
thought as a whole, rather than by any subordi- 
nate element. Inflection, on the other hand, is 
necessarily "particular" in its applications. 

We may here briefly review, as a " general pro- 
perty," the element of quality, or tone-color, 
thinking of it in its application to passages or 
articles as a whole, or to a character in persona- 
tion. 

1. Pure tone is the result of a normal action of 
the vocal organs. Such action produces the max- 
imum of elasticity, concentration, and resonance, 
with the minimum of muscular effort. It also 
agrees with the laws of sound ; the one being 
adapted to the other as means to an end. The 
normal condition of the emotions, naturally reveals 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 87 

itself through this quality. The "pure" is more 
objective in its effect than any other quality. 

2. In the emotions employing the orotund there 
is a stronger subjective element. One is conscious 
of himself as being moved by the sense of gran- 
deur, nobility, etc. It is, therefore, natural that 
these emotions should express themselves through 
a vocal action which gives deeper and fuller, yet 
agreeable sensations. 

Both pure and orotund may be considered 
healthful or good qualities — all others unwhole- 
some or bad — as indicating some abnormal state 
of feeling, some disturbance or interruption. 
Consequently we find that the tones which express 
these states result from some abnormal action 
of the vocal apparatus. 

3. The aspirated quality results from a suppres- 
sion of natural vocality, corresponding to the 
suppression of natural communication. Such sup- 
pression, if the result of mere weakness, is only 
indicative of a state previously induced, and is not 
specially tiresome. If it results from a stifling 
intensity of feeling, it soon becomes fatiguing 
physically, just as the feeling it portrays does 
mentally. The whisper is generally much more 
wearisome than full vocalization. 

4. As harshness, anger, jealousy, rage, are per- 
versions of the natural state of mind, so the tone 
that pictures these is a perversion of the natural 
action, a conflict of the voice with itself, the neck 
muscles opposing the work of the vocal organs, or 
chords. 



1 88 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

The fact that such perversion becomes habitual 
in some men no more proves it natural, than the 
fact of habitual ill-temper proves that to be of 
divine origin. 

5. When the emotions under the oppressiveness 
of awe or terror are driven in upon themselves, 
they become the most subjective, and so does the 
tone representing them. The gateway outward is 
largely closed, and the deep, half-smothered chest 
vibration is felt to be the natural sign of such 
emotions. This action is seldom imitated or 
affected except by professional impersonators. 

6. Certain forms of agitation in the feelings im- 
part a quiver to the whole frame, especially to 
the vocal chords and the muscles regulating 
the breath. This produces the tremulous quality, 
which may have widely different significations. 
As a sigh and a laugh are, physically, almost the 
same action, so may pathos and merriment be 
expressed by similar trembling vibrations of the 
voice. To know these facts and use them is not 
affectation. 

Special Qualities. — Different shapings of the 
mouth cavity produce varying overtones, and im- 
part different qualities, even with the same funda- 
mental voice action. Hence, aside from the lead- 
ing kinds of quality already mentioned, we 
recognize other special qualities. Of these, there 
are five distinctly recognizable, corresponding to 
as many definite shapes of mouth, and represented 
each one by a characteristic vowel. Thus: "00" 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 1 89 

is soothing, " dj n is intense, "ai" is bright, wide, 
high, "o" is noble, while " ah " is hearty. Of 
course there are combinations and shadings of 
these effects indefinite in number. 

Practical Study of Qualities. — Take ex- 
tended passages ; or, still better, all the utterances 
of one person in a scene of a Shakespeare play. 
Form your judgment as to the general character 
and the particular modifications; and find the 
kind of voice that will best fit the part as a whole. 
Do not be satisfied with having something unusual 
or striking ; be sure that your qualities are really 
interpretative. 

Remarks. — 1. Any vowels may be tempered or " colored" with 
any others, making it possible to change somewhat the emotional 
character of a passage, even with words naturally unfavorable. 

2. As in "quantity," so in quality, there are, for most situations, 
words naturally suited for expression. Study of emotional effects 
in poetry and oratory will discover many of these, and thus greatly 
enrich one's diction, as well as his delivery. 

General Force as Distinguished from 

Stress. — General force is that fullness, volume, 
abruptness, or intensity which pervades an entire 
passage, rather than that which is heard on sepa- 
rate words. It is to stress what melody is to 
inflection, or movement to pause and quantity. 

1. The effect represented by initial stress, when 
applied to a whole sentence or passage, gives an 
impetuous or startled expression, heard as a prop- 
erty of the whole thought; as : 



I90 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Up drawbridge, grooms. What, warder, ho ! Let the portcullis 
fall. 

This is called general abrupt force. 

2. Take the final stress mood and apply it to 
utterances like the following : 

Ah ! gentlemen ! that was a dreadful mistake. 
Once again I swear the eternal city shall be free. 

No one special word gives the insistence. It 
belongs to the passage as a whole ; and the sen- 
tence is spoken much as if it were one long word, 
having a cumulative, pressing force, which cul- 
minates on the last word, or on the emphatic word 
nearest the end. This might be called general 
insistent, or cumulative force. The sign of final 
stress might be written over the entire sentence. 

3. So of median stress. Take this example: 

I appeal to you by the stirring memories of our common history. 

Or these: 

Who does not feel proud of such a record ? 
An attitude of dignity should be maintained. 

It is evident that the sentence as a whole has 
much the same apportionment of force as a single 
word with median stress. This would be shown 
by the swell placed above the whole sentence. 
This might be called general expanding ox ennobling 
force. 

4. The thorough stress mood applied to sen- 
tences is most obviously natural, as in : 

On, on, you noble English. 
Forward, the light brigade. 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF UTTERANCE. 191 

This would be named general sustained force. 

5. Compound stress has no precise analogue in 
general force ; but the mood it represents may be 
applied to long passages, giving the whole a vio- 
lent, tumultuous effect, as in : 

Why, I will fight with him upon this theme 
Until my eyelids will no longer wag. 

This would give general force of violence or rage. 

Remarks. — 1. In these forms of general force, especially final 
and median, emphatic words may be so placed in the sentence as to 
favor the effect. Good writers seem to recognize this. When 
composing, especially for oral delivery, consult this principle. 

2. The observance of general force will somewhat temper the 
use of pauses. 

Thus : (1) abrupt force will favor many short pauses. (2) 
Insistent force will generally employ few pauses. (3) Expanding 
force will have comparatively few pauses, but will have a some- 
what decided pause after the climax of the sentence : this answers 
closely to the caesura in verse. See examples above. (4) Gen- 
eral sustained force will have the pauses few, or very evenly dis- 
tributed ; so as not to disturb the evenness of volume, which is 
the characteristic of this form. (5) General violent force, on the 
other hand, may have many marked and unexpected pauses, 
symbolizing the irregular movement of the thought which 
prompts it. 

Examples. — Find or make examples illustrat- 
ing these general applications of force. Write 
them out, placing enlarged signs of force over the 
entire sentence or passage, where it is possible to 
do so ; and train both ear and voice to measure 
the general effect. 



CHAPTER XL 

GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

Gesture, in the broad sense, is any significant 
action of any part of the body, or of the body as a 
whole. Its office is to express or intimate ideas 
additional to those contained in the accompany- 
ing words, If the gesture represents only the 
same ideas as the language, it will either be redun- 
dant, or make the figure of rhetorical repetition, 
which is often allowable. 

True gesture is, thus, not merely an accompani- 
ment, but a part of complete expression. Its 
object is not merely to adorn, but to assist the 
utterance. It seeks primarily, not grace, but 
expressiveness. Grace and ease are, indeed, valu- 
able properties, just as rhythm and melody and 
euphony are in language, but as language does 
not exist for the sake of these agreeable or esthet- 
ic properties, but for the thought which it may 
express, so does gesture. Pantomimic expression 
is as really a language as vocal expression. It is 
the first in order of time, being used effectively 
and intelligently by children before they learn 
verbal language. It is used also by all expressive 
natures in connection with verbal language, and 
often in preference to it. It also comes before 
verbal language in any particular sentence; that 



GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 193 

is, the expression of eye, head, hand, shoulders, or 
trunk precedes the expression in words. 

Proofs of the Relation of Gesture to 
thought. — (1) We naturally observe it, and inter- 
pret words in part by it. For example, one says, 
" I shall not go ! " The words alone reveal simply 
the action of the judgment, or intellect. Moreover, 
they give simply the conclusion reached ; but 
when we hear these words spoken, we do not 
receive simply this intellectual conclusion. We 
mark the attitude of the body, the carriage of the 
head, the inclination of the eye, the action, if any, 
of the hand, arm, or shoulder accompanying the 
words. Thus, when one says, " I shall not go," 
standing firmly upon the back foot, with the front 
leg firmly set, the head slightly back, the neck and 
shoulders firm, we interpret the action as that of 
resistance ; and we add to the words " I shall not 
go," some such comment as this : " I stand upon my 
own rights and rely on my own will. There is no 
power that can compel me to go." Again, if the 
same words were uttered by a person standing in 
a careless and easy position, the weight perhaps 
balanced upon both feet spread wide apart, arms 
akimbo, head a little inclined to one side, shoulders 
dropped, we add the idea of indifference ; and we 
make his four words mean something like this : 
" O, it don't matter at all to me ; I shall not fret 
myself about it ; it is not worth while to go." The 
same words might be interpreted in perhaps a 
dozen different ways. Any one quoting them 

14 



194 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

would ordinarily be justified in adding those ad- 
verbs or supplementary clauses which the gesture 
and action virtually introduce into the sentence. 

(2) In conversation we frequently inquire as to 
the action, and do not feel certain as to the speak- 
er's real intent or attitude, until we know the pan- 
tomimic expression which accompanied the verbal. 

(3) Literature often makes description of action 
an essential part of delineation of character. Veri- 
fy this by examination of passages in Scott, Dick- 
ens, Hawthorne, George Eliot, and others. 

(4) We employ it instinctively. Nature thus 
seems to claim gesture as one of her favorite chan- 
nels for communication. 

Subjective Properties of Action. — These 
are such as reveal the attitude, mood, or relation 
of the speaker toward the thought or toward those 
addressed. They consist chiefly in those attitudes 
of the body which depend upon the position and 
action of the feet, and those in which the position 
of the head is the prominent characteristic. The 
position of shoulders and chest also sensitively in- 
dicates subjective conditions. These subjective 
conditions regard, chiefly, the emotional and voli- 
tional attitudes of the speaker. Recur to the dif- 
ferent paragraphs in the chapters on Emotion and 
Energy. 

Objective Properties of Gesture. — These 
indicate some position or quality of the object 
described, or some relation of the truth presented. 
Such objective properties are, for example : near- 



GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 195 

ness or remoteness, smallness or vastness, location 
and motion. These objective properties are most 
naturally expressed by movements of the body, 
particularly of the eye and hand. Subjective 
properties, on the other hand, are expressed rather 
by bearings, or attitudes of the body. 

The objective properties, those concerned in 
locating, measuring, describing, etc., are expressed 
chiefly by the arm and hand ; such action consti- 
tutes gesticulation, as opposed to bearing and the 
more general pantomimic expression. 
As related to the rhetorical properties of delivery, 
and as dependent upon literary interpretation, the 
subject of gesture is here introduced thus briefly 
for the sake of showing its connection with the 
general principles of language and of expression. 
The bearing and the gesture give the general con- 
ception of the thought, which is specifically 
explained by the accompanying words. All ges- 
ture is thus essentially figurative language. It 
presents to the mind the general image of the 
thing described or of the personal attitude repre- 
sented. It figures forth, in the most economical 
and direct way, that which verbal language must 
do much more indirectly and expensively. 

Gestures, as figurative language, may be broadly 
divided into four classes : 

(1) Gestures giving literal or physical representa- 
tion ; such as measurements of length, height, indi- 
cations of literal shape and extent, or of literal 
movement. 



196 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

(2) Those conveying metaphorical representation ; 
as of ideas akin to the sense of height, depth, 
extent, rapidity or slowness, aversion, inclination, 
etc. 

(3) Gestures of ideal presence ; representing an 
abstract relation or an absent person or object 
as seen before the speaker. Here the rhetorical 
sense of the figure of vision is typified by the 
speaker in directing his eyes to the imagined 
object or person. 

Remark. — This is the only class of gestures requiring or admit- 
ting the accompanying action of the eye ; and here the eye should 
never "follow," as is so often directed, but should invariably 
precede the action of the arm and hand. 

(4) Gestures of energy or intensity. These are 
analogous to "figures of emphasis " in Rhetoric, 
such as repetition, exclamation, interrogation, and 
the like. They will accompany the words, and 
will re-inforce, rather than illustrate, their meaning. 
Gestures of this class will prevail in strongly en- 
ergetic passages, and will often obviate the neces- 
sity of verbal repetitions. 

Examples. — All of these should be fully illus- 
trated in original and selected passages. 

Pantomimic Paraphrase. — One of the most 
useful things a student can do is to translate words 
into action, or pantomimic expression. Take, for 
ey ample, the four classes just given : 

(1) Literal or Descriptive Gesture. Take any 
vivid description or wordpainting, and, without 



GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 197 

speaking any of the words, represent the whole 
scene or narrative in pantomime. The purpose 
will be, first, to gain a fresher and more vivid im- 
pression of the scene described or the thought 
conveyed; and, secondly, to acquire ease and 
spontaneity in gesture. 

For this practice take at first such selections as 
Webster's description of the murderer's entrance 
into his victim's room, in the speech on the White 
Murder Case ; Victor Hugo's description of the 
loosened cannon on the vessel's deck in " '93 " ; 
" The Wreck of the Hesperus," by Longfellow ; 
the chariot race in " Ben Hur," — any passage that 
is mainly descriptive, and in which there is vivid 
and rapidly changing imagery. 

Afterward study selections that employ less of 
physical imagery, and more of metaphorical signifi- 
cance; those in which different attitudes of the 
mind — varying intellectual, emotional, and voli- 
tional conditions — may be typified in changes of 
bearing or gesture. For this use the speeches 
in "Julius Caesar" are especially favorable. Find 
also good extracts in many orations, such as that 
on " Idols," by Wendell Phillips; the " Reply to 
Haine," by Daniel Webster ; the " Eulogy on La- 
fayette," by Edward Everett : such poems as 
"Robert of Sicily," by Longfellow; "The Prison- 
er for Debt," 6 by Whittier ; and " The Vision of 
Sir Launfal," by Lowell. 

(2) Purely Metaphorical Gestures. — These will 
require much more discernment, a much more 



198 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

careful measurement of the thought. Obliging 
yourself to express the metaphor in pantomime 
when it is possible to do so, will make the image 
bright and vivid to your own thought ; and will 
in turn give a reality and expressiveness to the 
action, which nothing else can secure. Take such 
passages as the following ; study the metaphorical 
sense of the imagery, and then try to represent it 
in pantomimic language : " My Soul and I, " by 
Whittier ; " The Flood of Years," by Bryant ; " The 
Present Crisis," by Lowell; " The Builders," and 
" Sandalphon," by Longfellow; " Sleep," by Mrs. 
Browning; "The Lost Chord," by Miss Procter. 
Take also strong figurative passages in speeches, 
as that of Patrick Henry on " Resistance to Brit- 
ish Aggression ; " Grattan's reply to Mr. Corry ; 
and almost any impassioned oration. Find also 
extracts from more quiet and less noticeable works, 
which contain expressive figures of speech, espe- 
cially metaphors and similes ; and translate these 
into pantomime. 

(3) Ideal Presence. — Rhetorical figures of ideal 
presence are among the most graphic, and will be 
as easy as any class to express in pantomime. The 
tendency will perhaps be to employ them too 
freely. The speaker must always judge carefully 
as to whether the purpose of the sentence is pri- 
marily the bringing up of an absent or invisible 
object to sight, or the enforcement of some thought 
upon his listeners. 

Passages illustrating this property are the fol- 



GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. I99 

lowing from Edward Everett: ideal presence, in its 
simplest form, assuming the object to be before 
the speaker, and using often the present tense, is 
found in the Eulogy on Lafayette in the para- 
graph containing these words : 

Before you stretches the broad expanse of York River, an arm 
of Chesapeake Bay. 

Also in one of the closing paragraphs, contain- 
ing this sentence : 

You have hung the venerable arches, for the second time since 
their erection, with the sable badge of sorrow. 

The figure of vision, in which the speaker 
declares himself to be witnessing, in imagination, 
the scene he is describing, is finely illustrated in 
that memorable paragraph in " The First Settle- 
ment of New England," beginning: 

" Methinks I see it now, that one solitary, adventurous vessel, 
the Mayflower of a forlorn hope," etc. 

Apostrophe, as the name suggests, will be most 
naturally expressed in action, by turning from the 
audience, for the time, to address the imaginary 
auditor figuratively introduced. There will often 
be no gesture, the change of posture and of face 
being sufficient. Find a good case of this figure in 
Everett's Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, the pas- 
sage beginning: 

Tell me, ye who tread the sods of yon sacred height, is Warren 
dead ? Can you not still see him, not pale and prostrate, the blood 
of his gallant heart pouring out of his ghastly wounds, but mov- 
ing resplendent over the field of honor, with the rose of heaven 
upon his cheek, and the fire of liberty in his eye ? 



200 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Legitimate cases of ideal presence may be found 
in such passages as the following: Dr. Nott's 
Sermon on the Death of Alexander Hamilton, 
Blaine's Eulogy on Garfield, Everett's description 
of the death of Copernicus, Longfellow's " Sun- 
rise on the Hills," Tennyson's " The Lady of Sha- 
lott." For purposes of occasional drill the mind 
may be allowed to dwell exclusively upon the im- 
agery, and make it ideally present. The beneficial 
results will appear when this property is tempered 
into its proper relations to the other elements of 
delivery. The action and the utterance will have 
gained in vividness and spontaneity. 

(4) Energy or Intensity. — Here, as already said, 
the gesture either repeats or supplements the 
words ; it may even suggest adjectives, adverbs, 
and not infrequently clauses, or even entire propo- 
sitions. 

Take a sentence and speak it with different kinds 
of gesture and action, showing how the action sup- 
plements the words. Translate, as nearly as pos- 
sible, the action into its equivalent words. Write 
these verbal equivalents as interlined expansions, 
according to the models given in Chapter IX. 
After so paraphrasing and expanding, take the 
original text and re-translate the expansions into 
gestures. Let the following serve as simple 
examples. 

Be prepared to hear. 

I had as lief not be, as live to be in awe of such a thing as I 

myself. 



GESTURE AS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 201 

I know where I will wear this dagger then. 
Brutus, bay not me : I'll not endure it. 

Take also, almost any of the examples given 
under energy, Chapters VIII. or IX. 



CHAPTER XII. 

VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 

In all art-work there are two essential factors ; 
first, the mental, second, the physical. There 
must be a conception in the mind, and then 
some way of expressing that conception. Thus, 
every art must have its materials of representa- 
tion. In Elocution, the mental or spiritual con- 
ceptions consist in the measurements of thought 
and relations of thought, which we have traced 
somewhat through the purposes in utterance. 
The restatement, expansion, condensation, illus- 
tration, and all other forms of modification de- 
signed to give the speaker himself a fresher 
momentary realization of the purposes in the utter- 
ance, have accompanied every stage in the analy- 
sis thus far, under the name of paraphrase. The 
mental part of the work of expression is thus 
embraced under these two leading terms, purpose 
and paraphrase. These constitute the rhetorical 
preparation for utterance ; but these alone are not 
sufficient to convey thought in all its relations and 
in all its emotional and energetic properties. 
There must be a physical medium for communica- 
tion. Such medium consists mainly in the pro- 
perties of tone which we have considered; as, 
time, pitch, quality, and force, under the forms of 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 203 

movement, rhythm, inflection, melody, qualities, 
general and special, general force and stress. 

We have thus far assumed that these properties 
were somewhat well known ; or, at Jeast, recog- 
nizable by the student. It remains to show the 
connection of special cultivation of the voice with 
these rhetorical properties of utterance. 

Every one has used his voice from infancy ; and 
it is natural to assume that the action which has 
become habitual is the normal, or natural action. 
This, however, is often far from the truth. We 
must always discriminate between the natural and 
the habitual. The natural is that which is evi- 
dently prescribed by nature ; that which works in 
accordance with the laws of nature, and which 
justifies itself by the results of ease, durability, 
suitability, and unobtrusiveness of action. 

The normal action of the voice has been inti- 
mated in connection with the normal state of the 
emotions. It is that which constitutes the pure 
tone. The action of the different parts of the 
vocal apparatus according to the prescriptions of 
nature, and the establishment of such action and of 
the normal conditions upon which it depends, 
by the use of definite and systematic exercises, 
— this constitutes vocal technique. 

While it is true that there can be no really 
expressive utterance without an approximately 
normal vocal action, it is true, on the other hand, 
that the vocal technique itself will best be devel- 
oped and established under the guidance of the 



204 



GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 



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Breathe, slowly and then rapidly. 

Count numbers. 

Sentences and passages. 


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Passive shake of Larynx. 
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Test freedom by hand. 
Koo-koo ; even notes. 
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Passages. 


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205 




206 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

rhetorical spirit ; that is, the spirit of genuine and 
untrammeled communication. 

All the special exercises included in the fore- 
going vocal chart may be thought of in connection 
with the different moods of utterance. The exer- 
cises, while primarily physical, and designed to 
secure simply the right technical action of the 
parts, may yet be varied so as to fit the different 
moods of utterance ; and they may be more intelli- 
gently practiced after the study of these express- 
ional moods than before. This is true especially 
of the practical exercises in sentences and para- 
graphs, which close each list of exercises. 

Some further explanation may render more 
intelligible the directions in connection with the 
discipline of each organ. 

It is important to keep constantly in mind all 
parts of the vocal apparatus, in order to avoid ruts 
and hobbies. The proper action of any one part 
alone will not secure good vocalization. All the 
parts of the vocal apparatus are mutually depend- 
ent. 

In a system of voice culture we might com- 
mence with any one of the organs. Practically, it 
is perhaps most advantageous to begin with the 
development of the chest. 

The Chest performs a double office. It acts as 
an automatic bellows, and also as a resonance 
chamber. This second office is practically the 
more important of the two. This indicates the 
necessity for securing perfect openness. The air 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 207 

column is thus deepened and broadened ; and, 
being held approximately quiet during speech, 
this enlarged air chamber re-inforces the vibrations 
of the vocal chords, much as the body of the vio- 
lin enhances the vibrations generated by the 
string. It is the greatest mistake to treat the 
chest as merely a bellows. The purity as well as 
depth, resonance, and volume of the tone depends 
upon the skill with which the vocal chords and 
articulating organs can play upon this quiet air 
chamber. Such action produces musical ( or regu- 
lar and periodic) vibrations. Such vibrations 
have the strongest transmitting power. The tone, 
as it were, radiates — it is propagated, rather than 
propelled. The action by which such tone is pro- 
duced depends upon skill rather than muscular 
strength. The greatest effort is put forth by the 
inspiratory muscles, not the expiratory ; the la- 
bor and skill both being directed to the problem 
of holding, during the utterance, the greatest 
practicable amount of approximately quiet air, 
which tends to expel itself by the natural con- 
traction of the air-cells. The air-chamber thus 
becomes at the same time an automatic bellows and 
the great body of the tone-producing instrument. 
The physical sensations accompanying such use 
of the voice are most agreeable, producing a 
sense of activity without exertion ; giving a buoy- 
ant, fresh, inspiring, enlivening sense, which well 
fits the normal attitude for communication. It is 
both cause and effect of such normal expressional 
mood. 



208 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Poise. — This is vital in all vocal action, because 
without this there can be no free breathing. If 
the body is out of balance, all parts of the chest 
and waist will be in some measure constricted, 
thus destroying resonance, both by reducing the 
amount of air received into the lungs, and by pre- 
venting the vibration of the walls of the body, 
which form a part of the resonance-apparatus. 

In securing poise, stand first on both feet, with 
the weight well toward the ball. Let the hips be 
directly under the shoulders. A straight line 
should pass through the center of ear, shoulder, hip, 
knee, and instep. Standing in position, rise elastic- 
ally toward the toe, without any swaying of the 
body forward or sidewise. Each time the body 
rises, inhale deeply and fully. 

Expansion of Torso. — Place the back of one 
hand just below the shoulders, with fingers of the 
other a little below the collar bone. Let the chest 
collapse, or fall in. Stretch against both hands, 
expanding the body in a diagonal line ; outward and 
upward, downward and backward. 

The object in the foregoing exercises is twofold. 
First, it is designed to secure dignity and ease of 
bearing ; and, second, to prepare for full respira- 
tion. 

Arm Movements. — (i) Drawing back. Ex- 
tend both arms forward on a level with the shoul- 
ders, fingers extended, palms up. Clenching the 
hands, draw the arms slowly and firmly backward 
until the fists reach the shoulders. Be careful that 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 20O, 

the back does not hollow, and that the body does 
not lose its perfect poise. Repeat this exercise 
elastically and rhythmically, part of the time rising 
to the toe as the arms are drawn backward. Be 
careful also to breathe deeply, and by power of 
will expand the waist and back. 

(2) Setting back. Place the hands in front of 
the chest, palms outward ; clenching the hands, 
pass them around, .in the arc of a circle, until they 
come in line with the shoulders, or, if possible, 
pass back of that line. 

Here there will be great danger of mechanically 
hollowing the back; prevent this by volitional 
expansion of the torso. As in (1), rise rhythmic- 
ally and elastically to the toe during a part of 
the exercise. 

(3) Spreading. Extend the arms on a level with 
the shoulder, touching finger tips. Rising to the 
toe, spread the arms outward until they come 
upon a line with the shoulders, or, if possible, far- 
ther backward, even so as to touch the backs of 
the hands together. As before, be careful to 
expand the torso, to prevent hollowing of the 
back. Be careful also that the hips do not sway 
forward when you rise. Move in a straight bne 
upward, keeping perfect poise. Let there be no 
stiffness of the limbs or body. All must be firm, 
but perfectly elastic. 

Special Expansion of Parts. — (i) Diaphragm. 
Place the ends of the fingers just over the pit of 
the stomach, between the floating ribs ; push in- 

15 



2IO GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

ward, exhaling ; usually blow out through the lips. 
Exhaust the chest completely, and you will per- 
ceive that the diaphragm has receded and moved 
upward. Now hold the shoulders and upper 
chest perfectly still, refill your lungs by bearing 
out upon your fingers. You will feel the dia- 
phragm return downward and outward. Repeat 
this several times with slow breathings; then, as a 
mere muscular exercise without regard to breath, 
gain separate control of the diaphragm muscle. 
Remember that the diaphragm itself is, first and 
chiefly, an inspiratory muscle. Its action deepens 
the chest, assisting in the drawing and retaining 
of a full breath. It is not the office of the dia- 
phragm, directly, to expel the air. When drawn 
downward and held somewhat tense, the diaphragm 
becomes a part of the resonating apparatus, some- 
what analogous to the lower drum-head. 

Practice this action of the diaphragm, sometimes 
rapidly changing, and sometimes holding it for a 
few seconds fully contracted, until it becomes an 
easy and agreeable exercise. The result will be 
an increase in depth, resonance, and elasticity of 
tone. 

(2) Upper Chest. Place the tips of the fingers 
a little below the collar bone, about the second 
or third rib, holding the shoulders, waist, and 
back quiet. Bear out against your fingers, inhal- 
ing all you can, until the chest is carried out to its 
fullest extent. Let it slowly recede, emptying the 
chest as nearly as possible. Repeat this process 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 211 

several times with an elastic but full action. Con- 
tinue this practice many times a day, until it 
becomes easy and habitual to carry the chest well 
out. 

(3) Sides. Place the hands upon the floating 
ribs, thumbs forward : holding all other parts as 
still as possible, push out against your hands, allow- 
ing the lungs to fill as much as they can. Mechan- 
ically push in upon the ribs and let the breath 
escape. Again push out, and continue the prac- 
tice until you can, at will, expand at this point, 
elastically and fully. 

(4) Back. Place the hands upon the sides, as 
in (3); but with the thumbs now pointing forward, 
and the fingers passing backward around the 
body, till the finger tips nearly or quite touch 
each other. Now, mechanically press in upon the 
body while expelling the breath through the lips. 
When the lungs are emptied (as nearly as they can 
be in this way), hold all other parts of the body as 
quiet as possible, and push out against your fin- 
gers. Repeat, and practice as in the other cases. 

The purpose in first making these separate ex- 
pansions is, by giving the entire will-power to each 
one at a time, to gain perfect control over that 
part. The result will be that the chest will soon 
come to expand in all directions symmetrically 
and easily, and will be able to remain in this ex- 
panded condition during a reasonable sentence, 
say ten or twenty words. The gain will be appar- 
ent in increased fullness and ease of tone, as well 
as in repose of bearing. 



212 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

Chest Percussion, — Use this exercise moderately, 
and at first even cautiously. Filling the entire 
chest, hold it open for a few seconds, while you 
pat all parts of the chest with an elastic and 
rhythmic stroke of the finger tips. Let the wrists 
be perfectly relaxed, and depend more upon the 
great number of light strokes than upon a few 
heavy ones. A strong man may gradually become 
able to endure hard raps upon any part of the 
chest. This is, however, not necessary for the cul- 
tivation of the voice, and is not here recommended. 

Breathings, slow and rapid. — (i) Slow. Place 
the hands upon the sides, fingers front, . holding 
the shoulders still ; expand the chest fully in all 
directions during a short time, say five or six 
seconds ; and, during about the same period, grad- 
ually diminish the chest and expel the breath. By 
practice this exercise may be increased in length 
until you can easily hold the breath from twenty- 
five to fifty seconds. 

(2) Rapid. Fill the lungs as quickly as possible, 
making a complete expansion of the chest. After 
holding an instant, exhale as quickly as possible, 
exhausting them completely. The exhalation 
may be mechanically assisted by pushing in the 
walls of the chest. This quick breathing is to be 
practiced very moderately, and in case of delicate 
persons may often better be entirely omitted. 

Counting. — For the merest mechanical vocaliza- 
tion, numerals are as good as anything. Place the 
hands on the sides, fingers front, upper chest well 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 21 3 

out, standing in poise, shoulders quiet, stretch the 
waist until you have a fairly full breath ; count, at 
moderate speed, with distinct articulation, the 
numerals up to twenty. 

For the first twelve or fifteen there should be 
no perceptible diminution of the size of the waist. 
During the latter part of the breath the ribs will 
gradually fall in, and the diaphragm gradually 
retreat upward. It is not best to exhaust the 
chest completely. In practical speaking the chest 
is never empty during the utterance of a sentence. 
Sometimes at periods, and usually at transitions, 
there may be a total change for an instant, the 
chest relaxing completely, or even for a moment 
collapsing ; but returning to what is called the 
" active" condition, as soon as another sentence 
begins. 

These counting exercises may be gradually ex- 
tended, until forty, fifty or more numerals are 
easily spoken in one breath. There is no great 
virtue in being able to count the greatest number 
possible at one breath. People will differ greatly 
in length of breath. The essential thing is that 
the chest be trained to stay firmly, but easily open, 
and that this condition shall last somewhat longer 
than will practically be required in ordinary 
speaking or reading ; because if the greater can be 
done with ease, the less will do itself. 

Sentences and Passages. — Having secured the 
right mechanical condition and technical action by 
previous exercises, apply this now to the utterance 



214 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

of actual thoughts and sentiments. In this part of 
the practice the connection of the technical devel- 
opment with the rhetorical measurement may be 
made to appear. 

(i) Deliberative matter of the various kinds 
requires precisely the condition which the chest 
exercises are designed to secure. When one mind 
addresses another mind with the intent of present- 
ing or unfolding ideas, or of informing the 
intellect, that mental attitude is best symbolized 
by the physical condition which brings the great- 
est ease, self-possession, self-forgetfulness ; and the 
most normal and unobtrusive vocal action. By 
this is meant that in the mood of deliberation there 
shall be nothing to call especial attention to the 
speaker as making any effort to be understood. 
Now the most important technical element in this 
easy and automatic vocal action is the full, elastic 
chest. What is said here will apply to all the 
other elements of vocalization, but is perhaps 
specially noticeable in connection with the breath- 
ing. Observe its application to the three varieties 
of deliberative matter. 

(a) Introductory. — The truly introductory atti- 
tude always implies that some preparatory consid- 
eration is presented to the mind of the listener, 
and, as preparatory, it must not laboriously nor too 
pointedly call attention to the thing said at the 
moment. Just here is one of the greatest weak- 
nesses of public speakers. A great amount of 
physical energy on the part of the speaker, and of 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 21 5 

nervous energy on the part of the listener, is often 
wasted in merely introductory matter. There 
should always be such spontaneity, such natural, 
agreeable action of the voice, as will set both 
speaker and listener perfectly at ease ; and so pre- 
pare for the passages which may require more 
effort. 

It will be important here to observe what has 
been said with regard to rhythm. An unrhyth- 
matical utterance is always laborious. The par- 
ticular character of the introduction will indicate 
the kind of rhythm to be employed. All the 
previous exercises for development of the chest, 
though essentially mechanical, may be more or 
less rhythmical; and when we come to drill on 
sentences and passages, the rhythm must be 
specially observed. 

(b) Propositional Matter. — Here there is more 
of weight and volume in the utterance. As we 
have seen, it is not energetic in the technical 
sense ; that is, it does not bear directly upon the 
will, and especially it does not reveal any purpose 
on the part of the speaker to move the will. The 
intensity and fullness of the utterance, therefore, 
must be of this automatic and unobtrusive kind. 
The listener must feel that the thought is weighty 
in itself, and not that the speaker is attempting to 
make it such. Now this measurement of the 
thought as propositional may be in the speaker's 
mind, and yet his design may be utterly thwarted 



2l6 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

by a forced, mechanical, laborious utterance. It 
is absolutely vital to the true rhetorical interpre- 
tation of propositional matter, that the body of 
the tone itself be such as to give a sense of weight 
and importance. It must have an easy and a spon- 
taneous fullness. 

(c) Transitional Matter. — The rhetorical signifi- 
cance of a transition indicates always some change 
in the weight of the thought; that which merely 
connects being always less important than the 
things connected. Here a right government of 
breath and of the volume of tone depending there- 
on will obviously be the technical requisite for 
expressive utterance. 

Recur to the examples in the chapter on delib- 
eration, and practice them with special reference 
to the control of breath through the chest condi- 
tions here described. Add many other examples, 
original and selected. Carefully measure the full- 
ness and volume of the tone ; and be very sure to 
avoid mechanical effort in any case of deliberative 
matter. 

(2) Discriminative Matter. — In the broadest 
sense discrimination, as we have seen, is the point- 
ing out of relations, particularly of contrasts. 
While inflection is the agent in particular and 
minute applications, ever) 7 other element in the 
utterance may, in its place, assist in discrimination. 
Differences of volume, depth, and intensity, may 
often be the most effective means of opposing one 
element to another. Refer to the examples under 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 217 

discrimination, and, in connection with the proper 
inflections, study this element of volume, as devel- 
oped in the chest exercises. 

(3) Emotion. — Emotion is directly and most 
sensitively connected with the chest conditions. 
This fact led the ancients to place the soul or seat 
of emotions in the region of the diaphragm. This 
seems nature's automatic guage of emotion. 

(a) Simply normal feeling will express itself 
with a reasonably full and not greatly distended 
chest, and will employ an action that is the result 
of previous expansions, rather than the attendant 
of a present effort to expand. 

(b) Enlarged, ennobled or deepen^ feeling will 
be attended with a present, and often conscious 
expansion of the chest, and, seemingly, of the 
whole frame. The philosophy of this is hinted at 
in our word " aspiration." When one aspires to 
something high and worthy, his soul is filled with 
the appreciation of that object, and symbolically 
he fills his breast, as if drawing into himself, or 
breathing in, the thing to which he aspires. 

This is doubtless the fact underlying many 
expressions of the sacred writers ; such as the 
following : 

I opened my mouth, and panted : for I longed for thy com- 
mandments. — Ps. cxix. 131. 

As the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth my soul 
for thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : 
When shall I come and appear before God?" — Ps. xlii. 2. 

In the last example, the figure of thirst further 



2l8 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

illustrates this point. As the satisfaction of thirst 
fills one deeply and exhilaratingly, so does the 
gratification of a cherished desire, or the imagined 
enjoyment of a noble and lofty exercise. 

All this indicates the vital connection between 
the rhetorical spirit in its noblest exercise and the 
thoroughly trained symbol of the same. 

(c) Abnormal feeling.^ Suppression, oppression, 
severity, tremulousness, are all vitally connected 
with the breathing apparatus. While the physical 
action which expresses these abnormal mental 
states is itself an abnormal condition, still such 
deviation for purposes of expression can be safely 
and effectively made only after the natural action 
is understood and mastered. 

Perfect technical control of the breath will be 
found as necessary in these abnormal types as in 
the normal. For example, suppression is illus- 
trated, rhetorically, by the figure of breathing out, 
as: 

Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the 
disciples of the Lord. — Acts xix. I. 

Shylock, hissing out his hatred, illustrates this, 
when he says aside, 

These be the Christian husbands ! — Mer. Ven. Act iv. Sc. i. 

Here, obviously, we have uncontrolled breath, 
physically speaking; but rhetorically it must be 
managed from the point of control. 

Again, take oppressed feeling, as in the muffled 
or shuddering sound of the pectoral quality. 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 219 

This also, in order to be rhetorically expressive, 
must first be technically mastered ; and the chief 
element in the technical control will be the deep 
breathing. For illustrations, recur to any of the 
examples given under this head in chapters VI. or 
VII. 

The stern or hard tone, as previously said, does 
not depend alone upon the changed condition of 
the throat. Severity may be mingled with a cer- 
tain nobility or self-respect ; in that case we must 
have the full and well controlled breath to support 
it. In meaner or more malicious uses, there will 
be corresponding changes in the breath element. 

The tremulous or agitated tone will depend, 
principally, upon the condition of the breath. 
Physically, a laugh and a sigh are closely akin. 
In either case, there is an interrupted action of the 
breathing muscles. These agitated feelings can 
never be fully expressed without the right condi- 
tion of the breathing apparatus. For artistic uses 
there must be the ability to hold a full column of 
air and yet allow the diaphragm and all parts of the 
chest to partake in the thrilling, shivering, throb- 
bing or bubbling character of the emotion. 

(4) Energy. — All the types of energetic commu- 
nication will easily be seen to have direct connec- 
tion with the control of breath. 

(a) Abruptness. The prompt, decided, sudden 
action must have well controlled breath, else it 
will lose all dignity and effect. Moreover, without 
a good support of breath, the suddenness of initial 



220 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

stress will prove wearisome, exhausting and injuri- 
ous to the vocal organs. 

(b) Insistence. Here the cumulation of power 
essential to the rhetorical expression will absolute- 
ly demand a full supplv of breath. If the chest is 
exhausted, or is poorly controlled, there can be no 
final stress. 

(c) Expansion with pressure. Like the emotion 
of nobility, of which it largely partakes, this phase 
of energy will demand such full breathing as to 
support and swell the tone. 

(d) Prolonged enforcement. This will require 
the fullest chest, most evenly held. There must 
be no jerky, thumping motion, else the dignified 
and exalted effect will instantly be destroyed. 
The best mechanical preparation for this type of 
energy may be secured by counting the numerals, 
in a full and evenly sustained tone. 

(e) Violence or perturbation. While this seems 
to demand uncontrolled breath, its artistic use im- 
plies a control. The rider's horse may, indeed, 
rear and plunge ; but he is curbed by the skilled 
hand of his master. 

Study all types of energy through examples 
given in chapters VIII. and IX. with special 
regard to the control of breath. 

Artistic Study. — Art being the combination 
of mental measurements with physical control, it 
becomes obvious that full expression can be pre- 
pared only by keeping in mind both of these 
elements, and by focusing them upon the render- 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 221 

ing of varied passages. Let there be, first, the 
accurate and sensitive measurement of the signifi- 
cance of the passage ; then consider nature's means 
for portraying, or symbolizing that meaning ; then, 
keeping the thought uppermost, sensitively and 
perseveringly measure in your own voice the 
physical symbol of that spiritual conception. 

The most gratifying results and the most prac- 
tical outcome of the study will be just at this 
point, at which the mental and the physical per- 
fectly unite. 

The union of these two elements has been 
specially emphasized in connection with breath- 
ing, because this comes first in our scheme of tech- 
nical study, and may thus illustrate what is true, 
in a measure, of all the other elements. Another 
reason for specially developing this thought here 
is this: the breath is, of all the vocal elements, 
most expressive, and most immediately connected 
with the rendering of thought. The breath is 
more positive, other elements more negative ; the 
breath produces the effect in proportion as the 
other organs present no hindrance or obstruction. 
We shall speak of the remaining elements of vocal- 
ization somewhat more briefly, assuming that all 
which has been said of the harmonious action of 
mind and body in the matter of breath is to be 
applied in large measure in all the following 
elements. 

Throat. — As all vibration starts with the action 
of the vocal chords, they themselves, and all their 



222 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

immediate connections must be rendered flexible, 
and be prepared for easy, prompt, and vigorous 
action. To secure this, practice constantly the 
following list of exercises. 

(i) Liberating motion of the neck. Sit, leaning 
well forward ; drop the head until the chin rests 
upon the chest ; raise it ; now slowly draw it doAvn, 
slightly stiffening the muscles of the neck ; again 
raise it. Now by contrast see what the condition 
of the neck muscles is when the head is perfectly 
" surrendered to gravity ; " that is, given up. " Let 
go " the neck. Do not draw the head down, but 
allow it to drop. Test the condition of the neck 
muscles, both by the general feeling of the neck, 
and by the sense of touch. Laying the hand upon 
the sides of the neck, you can easily detect the 
difference between the partially contracted and 
the wholly relaxed condition of the muscles. 
Again drop the head until the chin rests upon the 
chest. Sway the body to one side, then backward ; 
around to the other side, and finally forward, 
allowing the head to follow around, being led by 
the shoulders. Be sure that the neck muscles are 
perfectly relaxed, and the head absolutely surren- 
dered to the motion of the body. 

(2) While rocking the head and neck, loosely 
shake the larynx. This will be done by moving 
the back of the tongue upward, and allowing it to 
fall. There should be a soft, jelty-like condition 
of all the sides of the neck, which may easily be 
perceived by the tips of the fingers ; and the 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 223 

larynx should oscillate freely, as a passive hand 
would be shaken by taking hold of the cuff with 
the other hand, and flinging it up and down. 

(3) Make the sound of initial k ; that is, of k 
without the emission of any breath. It is a simple 
mechanical movement, striking the back of the 
tongue upon the soft palate. Do this in different 
rhythms, as if beating a tattoo with the back of 
the tongue. 

(4) Sing the syllable koo in even notes, thus: 
do, re; do, re; do, re; do, re; do. The first eight 
are short notes, the last one a long note, which is 
to be held smoothly and evenly. Accent slightly 
the lower note each time. Practice this up and 
down the scale. 

(5) Sing koo in triplets, thus : do re do ; re do re ; 
re mi re ; mi re mi ; mi fa mi ; fa mi fa ; fa sol fa ; 
sol fa sol ; sol la sol ; la sol la ; la si la ; si la si ; do. 
The last tone," do," may be a whole note with a 
hold on it, if there is sufficient breath left. 

Take all these singing exercises at easy natural 
pitches. The best average for all voices will be 
about the key of B flat. Bass and alto voices 
might begin as low as G or even F. Tenors or 
high sopranos need not practice them higher than 
Cor D. 

(6) Passages in different rhythms, especially 
poetry in different metres, will be best to practice 
first. Use especially the lighter and more flexible 
movements, as dactylic and anapaestic verses. 

Among many that will easily be found, the fol- 



224 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

lowing may be named : " Lochinvar," by Scott ; 
" How They Brought the Good News," by 
Robert Browning ; " The Battle of Ivry," by 
Macaulay ; " The Boys," by Holmes. 

The Jaw. — One of the greatest hindrances to 
easy and effective utterance is a stiff and inflexible 
jaw. It must first be liberated mechanically, and 
then be taught to move in flexible, elastic, but not 
extravagant action, and in all sorts of rhythm. 
For this the following simple order of exercises is 
suggested : 

(i) Sit leaning forward, as in preparation for 
throat exercises; drop the head until the chin 
rests upon the chest ; raise the head, allowing the 
jaw to hang down, as if falling asleep. Repeat this 
until you can feel a slight sense of weight in the 
lower jaw, as you can feel in the fingers when you 
draw the hand and arm up, allowing the fingers 
to hang down. When this slight sense of weight 
is perceived, then 

(2) Shake the jaw by the head and neck, moving 
the head vertically and laterally : allow the chin 
to be slightly moved, as the fingers would be 
moved if hanging passive while the hand should 
be shaken. Having thus secured a mechanical 
freedom or liberation, 

(3) Sing fo, fa, fa, up and down the scale ; then 
fo, fa, fa, fa ; then in triplets, fa fa fa ; three triplets 
to each degree of the scale. 

Take every rhythm you can remember or devise ; 
always allowing the jaw to hang and vibrate with 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 225 

perfect freedom. Remember, it is not essential to 
pull the jaw down as far as you can. The point 
we are seeking is flexibility, rather than wide 
opening. 

(4) Sing up and down the scale the syllables, do, 
re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do, and the numerals one, two, 
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, pronouncing all 
to each degree of the scale. 

This exercise can be coupled with the breathing 
exercises, by singing an entire scale, or even both 
the ascent and descent of the scale, to a single 
breath. 

(5) Selections. Let these be chiefly those of a 
glib and spirited nature, with varied rhythms. 
The following will be found helpful : " The Falls 
of Lodore," by Southey ; " Old Fezzing's Ball," 
from the " Christmas Carol," by Dickens ; the auc- 
tioneer passage in "Cheap Jack," by Dickens; 
the list of subscriber's in "Father Phil's Collec- 
tion," by Samuel Lover. 

Tongue. — This must be trained to keep out of 
the way, and yet to come to its place at every spot 
in the mouth where articulation shall demand it, 
and to act always with promptness, flexibility, and 
ease. The first thing to secure is what we have 
called, on the chart, a " yielding condition." 

(1) Place the tip of the tongue against the lower 
front teeth ; let it lie loosely, but it must stay there. 

(2) Place the finger and thumb under the chin, 
about an inch back from the front of the chin ; 

16 



226 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

bear down, not by the jaw, but by the hypoglossal 
muscle, upon your finger and thumb. 

(3) Keeping the same conditions, lift the uvula 
and soft palate. A mirror will be needed until one 
becomes familiar with the sensation. Be careful 
also that in lifting the uvula the tongue does not 
draw back; let it, rather, press lightly forward 
and downward. Now, observing these conditions, 
yawn fully, expanding the whole oral and pha- 
ryngeal cavity. After full yawning, 

(4) Take the vowel ah, sing it up and down the 
scale, . gradually, keeping this depressed condi- 
tion of the tongue, which should all the time be in 
the shape of a trough or a spoon right side up. 

(5) Couple the tongue exercises with those of the 
jaw, singing, fa, fa, etc., with flexible jaw and 
depressed tongue. 

Oral Cavity. — Under this head are included all 
the air chambers above the larynx. They are the 
pharynx, the nasal passages, and the mouth cavity. 
When we speak of opening the mouth freely, we 
do not mean a nervous working of the exterior 
facial muscles, nor a violent jerking or spreading 
of the exterior mouth. We mean the free opening 
of all those interior cavities in which the vowels 
are tuned, and in which the voice as a whole 
receives the. shaping which gives it true reso- 
nance and carrying power, as well as agreeable 
and expressive qualities. 

(1) Placing the tongue down and yawning, as in 
the previous exercise, quietly close the lips over 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 227 

the parted teeth, and delicately hum. Represent 
this sound by the letter m rather than "hm," 
because there is to be no perceptible escape of 
breath. By the direct act of the will the vocal 
chords will start the vibration, which is communi- 
cated to all the air chambers, and which will be 
felt, when the lips are closed, most perceptibly 
through the bones of the face, at the one extreme, 
and against the diaphragm at the other. Test the 
relaxation of all the neck muscles ; test also the 
depression of the tongue by the thumb and finger, 
as before described. Keeping all these conditions, 
hum, at first lightly, then with delicately increasing 
swells, up and down an octave in the middle of 
your voice. 

When the humming exercise is mastered, 

(2) Add, in order, these vowels : 

00, as in food, which will be made by the slightest 
parting of the lips at the center, all other parts 
remaining as they were ; 

ii, as in the German word fiihl ; 

a, as in great, but better represented in the Ger- 
man word Scohn (o). 

i, as in high, wide, bright. 

0, as in noble ; 

a, as in far. 

These are not, indeed, all the vowel sounds, but 
they are typical ones, and give, with sufficient 
exactness for vocal culture, all the elements needed. 
Practice these up and down the scale ; also in the 
speaking voice, with all sorts of rhythm. 



228 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

(3) Take lines of poetry in different metres and 
with different types of feeling — the calm, the deep, 
the gentle, the bright, the lofty. Use also prose 
of a dignified and noble nature. 

It is not to be thought that good vocal expres- 
sion requires absolutely the maximum of vowel 
fullness in every syllable. These exercises are 
given rather as a means of developing the whole 
capacity of the voice in this respect, any part of 
which is to be used in any given utterance, accord- 
ing to a wise and moderate judgment as to effects. 

The thing to be studiously avoided is any ap- 
proach toward mouthing. All the vowels are to 
be free, pointed, easy, round, resonant. In practice 
considerable prolongation may be required on 
each vowel element, in order to measure the 
sound, as well as the sensation accompanying the 
action which produces it. The student will need 
to be specially careful that school-room prolonga- 
tion does not become, in practice, an affected or 
elocutionary drawl. 

Such as the following will be serviceable for 
technical practice in cultivating purity and reso- 
nance : " The Day is Done," by Longfellow ; 
" Thanatopsis," by Bryant; "The Vision of Sir 
Launfal," by Lowell, especially the "preludes," 
and Part First. 

Vocal Chords. — The generating source of 
vibration can itself be trained. The elastic action 
of the vocal chords constitutes what is technically 
called the " touch " of the tone. Upon this de- 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 229 

pends the purity, ease, elasticity, and, in some 
measure, the fullness of sound. 

(1) With the oral cavity well opened and teeth 
slightly parted, but lips loosely closed over them 
repeat the hum in short, detached impulses, but 
with no emission of breath ( m - m - m ). 

The vibration should be felt, as before, in the 
face and against the diaphragm ; and while each 
impulse is to be short and instantaneous, there is 
to be no pressure to produce it. It starts with no 
perceptible mechanical action. The vocal chords 
by the sheer act of the will approach each other, 
closing the glottis, and so give the beginning of 
vibration. This is the vital element in the touch. 
The automatic contraction of the lung cells which 
have been distended in the act of inhalation, will 
be sufficient to support this beginning of the tone, 
called the " touch." If all the other conditions are 
observed, especially those of the chest, there will 
thus result what seems a merely automatic action 
of the voice. In its finest working, there will be 
no sensation except that which results from the 
vibration of the air chambers. 

In the healthy voice the vocal chords have 
almost no sensation. At all events, the jar given 
to the air chambers and communicated to the more 
sensitive parts of the frame so greatly transcends 
any feeling in the vocal chords themselves that 
the latter is practically nothing. 

Practice these exercises most diligently, as upon 
this depends the ease, elasticity, and freedom, 



230 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

which should characterize the great bulk of our 
conversational utterance. 

(2) 00, as in foot ; u, as in tub ; 0, as in not. Take 
these in all possible rhythms, the air chambers 
being held quiet. A lighted match held before 
the mouth should not flare, even when these 
vowels are given with full, strong sound. 

(3) Alternately with (2) give the koo-koo exercise, 
to insure liberation of all the neck muscles in con- 
nection with the prompt action of the vocal 
chords. 

(4) Sing in thirds: do, mi, re, fa, mi, sol, fa, la, 
sol, si, la, do, si, re, do. Mi, do, re, si, do, la, si, sol, 
la, fa, sol, mi, fa, re, do. Also this exercise, which 
employs different skips : sol, do, mi, sol, fa, la, re, 
fa, mi, sol, do, me, re, fa, si, re, do. [ Madame 
Seiler.] 

In connection with each of these and with simi- 
lar exercises which you can find or invent, put in 
promiscuously the humming note (m), and the dif- 
ferent open vowels, as 00, u, o. After you can 
give it as a whole and with an easy rhythmic 
flow, slip in first one and then another of the 
different tests for the touch or stroke of the vocal 
chords. Such alternation will prevent the stiffen- 
ing of throat and jaw, which might result if the 
attention were kept simply upon the action of the 
vocal chords. 

Articulating Organs. — These, of course, 
must be elastic and vigorous in their action, to 
secure distinctness of speech. They must not, 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 231 

however, be so strained or laborious as to call 
attention to their action. This would divert 
attention from the thing said to the mechanical 
means of saying it. One of the worst forms of 
elocutionary pedantry is a labored or noticeable 
articulation. The sounds are chiefly formed, as 
above described, in the oral cavity. They are 
shaped and communicated to the outer air by the 
assistance of the articulating elements ; and these 
must be heard in connection with the vocal ele- 
ments, and not seem to be a thing outside of the 
voice : they are a part of the voice. 

Each element of articulation must first be trained 
to individual, independent, free action ; and must 
next be associated with its vowels in such a way 
that it shall help to shape and point those vowel 
elements, rather than cover or displace them. 
This makes it truly con-sonant, that is, sounding 
with the vowels. 

(1) The lip stroke for labials. — Holding the breath 
quite still, tightly press the lips at the center, then 
let them suddenly open, making a slight popping 
sound. 

(2) Lip stroke for w. — This is made, not at the 
center, but at the sides of the mouth. Put the lips 
forward, contracted as for a Avhistle: hold the 
breath perfectly quiet, and instantly draw the 
lips backward. If you do it rightly, you will hear 
a suction of the air, which constitutes the test. It 
may sound somewhat like the dropping of water 
into a deep can. When the technical action is 



232 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

secured, sing up and down the scale such syllables 
as : wai, wo, we, wah. Any blowing upon these 
syllables will vitiate the whole effect. 

(3) Stroke for f — Here the upper teeth are 
placed on the lower lip, and suddenly parted as in 
the/ element. Practice here the exercises given 
under development of jaw action. 

(4) The stroke of the tip of the tongue. — Place 
the tongue firmly against the gum just over the 
upper front central teeth. Holding the breath, 
quite strongly press the tongue against the gum 
and instantly draw it back. The test will be a 
hollow, popping sound, somewhat like those given 
by / and w, though more pointed, and perhaps 
stronger. 

(5) Initial I. — Put the tip of the tongue well up 
on the gum, as in t, but instead of drawing it back, 
move it quickly down, as if removing a sliver from 
between the front teeth. If the breath is held 
quiet, you will hear a slight impulse in the air. 

(6) The front, or lingual r. — This is almost 
exactly the reverse of // the tongue placed loosely 
against the front, upper teeth, moves quickly 
upward against the gum, as if lapping in the air. 
Here there will be more danger of blowing than 
upon other elements. In order to secure the clean 
action of the initial r, the breath must be held still ; 
neither must there be any vocalization. You are 
to hear only the little flap, or beginning of a trill. 

(7) Combine the above motions in the following 
list of syllables : pa, ba, ma, fa, ta, la, ra, sa. These 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 233 

syllables may be taken, at first, staccato and quite 
widely separated, but with no expense of breath 
upon them. Afterward they may be taken legato 
and quite rhythmically. The rhythms may be 
varied at pleasure. 

(8) Find or make different combinations of syl- 
lables, seeking especially those that may present 
any special difficulties. First conquer the difficult 
element by slow, separate movements of the organ 
needed to produce that element, centering the will 
upon that definite, precise, and slow motion : then 
keeping the attention upon that element, repeat it 
more rapidly ; and finally in rhythms of all sorts, 
until, as a separate element, there is no longer any 
difficulty in producing it in any form and with any 
degree of rapidity. Next couple this with other 
elements. 

Any good treatise on elocution or voice culture 
will have abundance of such exercises, and it is not 
thought necessary to give extended examples 
here. 

The matter of consonant action has been thus 
mentioned, first, to show its place in the general 
scheme of voice culture, and, secondly, to remind 
the student that the rhetorical spirit is violated 
equally by a slovenly and by a laborious articula- 
tion. 

Abdominal Muscles. — These may be trained 
to a strong and most flexible action. The impor- 
tance of the abdominal muscles in vocalization is 
often overestimated. Perhaps it would be truer 



234 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

to say that their real office is generally misunder- 
stood. As here used, the term refers to the strong 
muscles surrounding the abdomen. The principal 
of these are : (i) the right abdominal muscle, the 
contraction of which may be observed about the 
median line of the body ; (2) the oblique abdomi- 
nal muscles, connecting the ribs and the inside of 
the hip bone, the action of which may be plainly 
perceived by laying the hand upon the side, the 
fingers pointing downward in front of the hip ; 
and (3) the transverse abdominal muscle, whose 
action may be perceived in connection with that of 
the other two, by placing the hands across the 
abdomen, the fingers touching, and the wrists 
lying across the hip bones. 

These different muscles in the abdomen may be 
somewhat trained separately, but practically they 
work together. In vocalization their action is 
required usually for one of two reasons : 

(1) To make what is popularly called a " sup- 
port " of the tone. The value of this support is 
seen thus: when the diaphragm is contracted, as 
above described, it moves downward and becomes 
more tense, serving as part of the resonance appa- 
ratus, re-inforcing the vibrations started by the 
vocal chords, much as the lower drum-head rever- 
berates, and augments the vibrations produced by 
playing upon the upper drum-head. Now in 
order to be held so firmly in its place as to assist in 
the vibration, there must be a somewhat firm con- 
dition of all the parts below the diaphragm. If the 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 235 

whole abdomen were absolutely relaxed, there 
would be a muffy and unresonant action. The 
degree of contraction in the abdominal muscles 
necessary for this support is not so great as that 
required for the violent expulsion of air, as in the 
cough or sneeze ; nevertheless the more moderate 
action required in vocalization may best be secured 
by first training these muscles to quite full and 
vigorous action, and then allowing only the 
needed part of their strength to be employed. 

(2) The second vocal use of the abdominal mus- 
cles is : 

(a) To sustain the expiration beyond the ordi- 
nary point, as in the case of long sentences during 
which one cannot recover full breath, and 

(b) To give a sudden and harsh impulse to the 
voice. 

Both of these uses ( 2, a and b ) are very infre- 
quent in normal utterance. The first use, giving a 
reasonably firm support to the tone, is in almost 
constant demand in normal utterance. It consti- 
tutes a part of the general condition indicated by 
the term " active chest." There is a flexible, and 
yet firm condition of the muscles of the entire 
trunk. 

It must be distinctly understood that the abdom- 
inal muscles are not to be used to pump the tone 
out of the chest, nor to give, ordinarily, any explo- 
sive, nor even expulsive, movement to the tone. 
They are usually to be so managed as to assist in 
the deep, full, sonorous, but musical vibration of 
the voice. 



236 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

The following list of exercises will be sufficient 
for the development of this part. Some of these 
exercises can be practiced most profitably in pri- 
vate, rather than in class. 

(1) Take slow, full inspiration, the abdominal 
muscles being as completely relaxed as possible, 
while the diaphragm and the rib muscles (intercos- 
tals) contract as strongly as possible. The pur- 
pose here is to deepen and broaden the thoracic cav- 
ity, or the chest proper. Just at this stage we give 
the entire attention to the filling of the lungs, and 
for the moment disregard the action of the abdom- 
inal muscles, except to relax them and let them be 
crowded out of the way by the diaphragm. 

(2) Slowly expel the air by first contracting the 
abdominal muscles. This may be felt very per- 
ceptibly by laying the hands upon the parts previ- 
ously described. Toward the end of the expira- 
tion, the upper chest itself may be allowed to 
diminish in size, the ribs falling in upon the lungs. 
If the expiration has been complete, the whole 
trunk will have a shrunken or collapsed appear- 
ance, but the chest muscles (intercostals and dia- 
phragm ) will be passive ; and the abdominal 
muscles will be strongly active ; that is, the chest 
will have fallen in, and the abdomen will have been 
drawn or pushed in. Repeat these two exercises, in 
alternation many times, observing and measuring 
by sensation, the action of both inspiratory and 
expiratory muscles. 

(3) Lie upon the back or sit reclining easily. 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 237 

a. Depress the diaphragm and abdomen, the dia- 
phragm muscle being the active, and the abdominal 
muscle the passive. 

b. Contract the abdominal muscles, allowing the 
diaphragm to relax ; (b) will exactly reverse the 
action of (a). Repeat (b), this time singing or 
speaking a staccato note, ah or oh. You will per- 
ceive that with the contraction of abdominal 
muscles and relaxation of diaphragm you have 
produced a breathy and unsubstantial sound. 

c. Contract the diaphragm muscle, allowing the 
abdomen to relax as in (a), this time singing or 
speaking a staccato note, ah or oh. Now you will 
observe that the breathiness has departed from the 
tone, and yet the sound is not as firm and resonant 
as it might be. 

d. Slightly contract the muscles, first separately, 
that is, diaphragm and ribs being active, while 
abdominal muscles are passive, and vice versa ; and 
second, contract both together ; that is, let there be 
a firm holding" down of the diaphragm and holding 
out of the ribs, and at the same time a moderately 
firm contraction of the abdominal muscles ; not 
amounting, however, to a rigid or violent action. 
This united effort of pectoral and abdominal 
muscles will give the best condition for firm and 
easy vibration of tone. Now 

e. Sing and speak vozvels oh, ah, a, c, ai, on, etc., 
keeping the simultaneous contraction of the tho- 
racic and abdominal parts. If this is done mode- 
rately, it will soon induce a most comfortable 



238 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

condition of the whole body ; a condition combin- 
ing- a healthful, animated, reasonably active state, 
with a sense of quiet and repose. 

The recumbent or reclining position has been 
assumed for the purpose of more minute and sepa- 
rate study of the muscles of the trunk ; as the 
attention can be directed to these parts best when 
all the other parts of the body are perfectly 
relaxed. Now, having learned the delicate meas- 
urement of these body muscles, 

(4) Stand, or walk quietly, singing and speaking 
the tones as above directed. Add short sentences 
in different moods, but always within the sphere 
of normal utterance. Carefully measure the gen- 
eral sensation accompanying this consentaneous 
action of all the parts. 

(5) Hold the singing tone during one breath. 
Run up and down the scale to one breath. Sing 
all the syllables, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do, upon 
each degree of the scale, ascending upon one 
breath and descending upon another. Now try 
all these eight syllables upon the sixteen notes ; 
that is, ascend and descend to one breath. This 
will give sustaining power for long passages. 

(6) Practice the " calling tone." Use words of 
military command and other shouting passages. 
In this be very careful that there is no straining or 
grating upon the throat. The action of the voice 
must be just as easy as in mild conversational 
utterance. There will be only fuller and broader 
action of the chest and abdomen. This broader 



VOCAL TECHNIQUE. 239 

action will give you somewhat the feeling of com- 
fortably stretching the muscles. There will be no 
jerking, no violent contortions. 

(7) Practice full and sustained declamatory pas- 
sages. For the purpose of technical development, 
even the rhetorical sense may be temporarily for- 
gotten. Make the voice carry, during long per- 
iods, as if you were speaking to an out-door audi- 
ence, or to a person across a field. In this avoid 
monotony of inflections and of cadences. Let the 
intonation be natural. The voice must be evenly 
sustained, deeply sonorous, and somewhat slower 
than in ordinary speech. 

It must be remembered in connection with all 
the exercises suggested in this chapter, that each 
element is first to be separately mastered, and then 
employed in connection with the other elements of 
vocal action. During the process of separate 
study and mastery, there will often seem to be an 
exaggeration of the element under consideration. 
Do not be disturbed by this. In actual use, one 
part will so balance and supplement another that 
the united effect will be simply normal, comfort- 
able, and easily efficient. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CRITICISM. 

In all that has been given in this volume in the 
way of tracing principles of utterance and meas- 
urement of thought, and in the way of suggestion 
as to means of expression and technical develop- 
ment, the purpose has been to assist in the prac- 
tical art of vocal interpretation. An art product 
has its final test in a discerning criticism. The 
art student should himself become a capable critic. 
The spontaneity which has been insisted upon is 
not antagonized by proper criticism. It is rather 
regulated and directed by the principles of criti- 
cism, to which art is naturally amenable. 

Criticism ought to mean intelligent, thorough, 
and candid judgment. Practically, it too often 
means mere fault-finding. 

Criticism may be divided into two classes : 

i. Popular, expressing a general approval or 
disapproval, with no well defined or scientifically 
determined judgment as to the merits of the work. 
It is a sort of feeling that the effect is right or 
wrong because it agrees with or differs from a 
preconceived standard, or simply because it 
pleases or displeases the critic. 

2. Technical or scholarly, the expression of a 
specific judgment from which personal taste and 



CRITICISM. 241 

feeling are largely eliminated. Such judgment is 
based upon definite knowledge of the constituents of 
thought and of expression, and upon a trained 
ability to discern whether the one justly embodies 
the other. It studies the thought from the writer's 
and speaker's point of view, rather than from the 
critic's personal view, recognizing the individual- 
ity of the speaker as an important element in the 
problem. 

Individuality in reading and speaking. — 
In what has been said it has not been intended to 
erect any absolute or mechanical standard of 
expression. The elements that have been treated 
are always to be adapted to the individual, and 
always to be modified by personal properties, as 
temperament, natural voice, form, etc. ; and also 
by special circumstances, as relations of speaker 
and audience, occasion, and particularly the 
purpose in the utterance. 

Moreover, all the elements of expression repre- 
sent relative effects, not absolute. People differ 
in their conception of thought, and consequently 
must differ in utterance. One is naturally calm, 
simple, and unimpassioned ; another naturally sees 
things in sharp contrast ; while a third inclines to 
state fact or argument with great energy ; and a 
fourth can never dissociate thought from emotion. 

To say that all these must speak alike, would be 
an attempt to destroy the very charm of speech, 
which is the expression of the individual 's appre- 
hension of the thought, or, the thought as measured 

17 



242 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

by the communicating mind. Scarcely less absurd 
would it be to assume that a person naturally 
deliberate, needs no quickening of the other ele- 
ments ; or that one naturally intense and energetic 
should always employ force ; or that a naturally 
emotional person should forever be showing his 
feelings. 

Every one needs such broadening and symmetriz- 
ing as may be gained from a discerning study 
of the Moods of Utterance. Some need this 
much less than others. Such are naturally versa- 
tile, responsive, and well balanced. But this very 
versatility — a special gift to the few — is to be 
sought by the many through broad culture. 

The same is true in matters of physical endow- 
ments and acquirements, as voice, bodily bearing, 
action. No one can gain much by imitating 
another, or by seeking to acquire the same flexi- 
bility or elasticity of vocal action, the same vol- 
ume of tone, or the same grace or fullness of 
gesture. But, while not to be imitated, all these 
may be emulated, provided only that one follow 
nature, and carefully preserve his own indi- 
viduality. 

The same is true of the special elements of expres- 
sion. There is no absolute length of pause, or 
degree of quantity ; there is no arbitrary scheme 
of inflections or melodies which all are to use alike 
in all cases; nor is the degree of quickness of 
impulse, or intensity of pressure, or fullness of 
swell, the same for all. One may express feeling 



CRITICISM. 243 

sufficiently with very slight variation of quality, 
while another will need to make the differences 
quite marked. In one, the least gesture is suffi- 
ciently expressive, while the same amount would 
render another speaker stiff and constrained. 
Then too, men will always differ as to the amount 
of deliberation needed in a given case ; as to what 
may be assumed, and what needs to be insisted 
upon ; as to when and how feeling may properly 
be expressed. Yet within the limits of the most 
jealous individuality, there are to be found these 
relative measurements of thovght-properties, and their 
corresponding exponents in elements of tone and 
action. All these may be studied, not only with- 
out detriment to individual freedom, but even 
with positive gain ; for through these each one 
may find his own way into the fullest, most varied, 
most natural expression of which he is capable. 

We may notice, first : 

Objective Properties of Delivery. — These 
will be, first of all, the mood, as deliberative, dis- 
criminative, emotional, or energetic. One must 
judge whether the speaker or reader has appre- 
hended rightly the general purpose of the article 
or passage, and must sustain his criticism by spe- 
cific reasons. These reasons will be based upon 
the recognized laws of thought as related to 
delivery. 

After judging of the moods in general, and of the 
means by which they are expressed, as movement, 
key, melody, interval, general quality, general 



244 GUIDE TO RHETORICAL DELIVERY. 

force, notice particular applications of pause, quan- 
tity, inflection, quality, and stress. If pauses are 
too frequent or too infrequent, too long or too 
short, show why. If a rhetorical pause is over- 
looked, point it out, suggesting zvhat additional 
implied thought might have been recognized, and 
why. If an inflection is wrong, let that appear by 
showing what it is in the sentence or context that 
demands " incompleteness," "completeness," or 
some composite form. If stress has been wrongly 
applied, show why " abruptness," or " insistence," 
or "enlargement" was needed. If qualities do 
not seem appropriate, show specifically why 
orotund is demanded, or guttural excluded. Do 
the same as to gesture. 

Criticism may notice also : 

Subjective Properties. — Be ready to point 
out the success or failure of the speaker in self- 
control and repose ; in appreciation of subject and 
occasion; in animation and enthusiasm. Note his 
attitude toward the audience. Judge as to how 
well the speaker has preserved his individuality. 
Detect imitation, affectation, and all unnatural 
effects. Give some practical suggestions as to 
personal peculiarities or tendencies in voice, 
action, facial expression, position, pronunciation, 
or any unpleasant mannerism. 

The two fundamental things here, as in the study 
of one's own delivery, may be: Purpose and 
Paraphrase. The purpose must be made the 
basis of criticism, as it is of interpretation ; and the 



CRITICISM. 245 

paraphrase may be employed by the critic in 
explaining his positions, just as it may be used 
by the speaker himself in reformulating the 
thought preparatory to utterance. If the criti- 
cism is given viva voce, as in case of teacher and 
pupil, or of general class criticism, or conversation, 
the critic may ask the criticised to justify his ren- 
dering by paraphrase or restatement. 

It is always to be remembered that the object 
of criticism is neither fault-finding nor flattery, 
but the expression of a judgment, unbiased and 
broad. It seeks to be useful to the one criticised, 
to the critic, and to listeners. The soul of true 
criticism is helpfulness. 



mW : 




